


End of the Hunt

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: The Holmes Estate [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sherlock Holmes (Downey films)
Genre: Also there are servants, Captain America Critical, F/M, Howard Stark Needs a Hug, Howard Stark gets a Hug, Howard's entire British family are the OCs, I use pen and paper to keep them straight, Lots of OCs - Freeform, Not Steve Friendly, Steve doesn't actually show up in this, he's just mentioned a few times, those are OCs too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 22,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13507059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: Howard was advised to contact his relatives in England.It's time to deal with HYDRA.





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

God knew what this was about.

Jarvis and Ana followed Mr. Stark out of the SI plane and into the London airport. There was a single man waiting in the lounge area. He turned his head as they walked out. The man, clean shaven, stood up and walked over. The man and Mr. Stark shook hands.

‘Howard Stark, I presume?’ he said.

‘And you must be Palmer Holmes.’

‘Guilty.’ Mr. Holmes looked past him. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis, also?’

‘Yeah.’ Howard grinned back at them. ‘So, we heading to King’s Cross now?’

‘King’s Cross,’ Mr. Holmes, displaying the same lack of social graces Mr. Stark had, pulled out four train tickets. ‘Jump on the train to Stafford and then Jim and Pam will pick us up at the station.’

‘Your head of domestic staff?’ Jarvis asked, because Mr. Stark had said something about old money and an ancestral estate.

‘Yes.’ Palmer turned and led them out of the airport. A taxi took them from the airport to King’s Cross and then boarded the train to Stafford. The whole trip, Mr. Stark and Mr. Holmes were discussing something that didn’t make an awful lot of sense to Jarvis. Then Mr. Stark clarified something and made at least part of the issue clear. ‘So, unless they can get them in for surgery, poisoning, beating, and shooting is par for the course?’

‘Yeah,’ Mr. Holmes said. ‘We’ve had four beatings, one shooting, three poisonings, and one intentional malpractice leading to death.’

‘Hm.’ Mr. Stark reached down into the carry-on bag he’d brought with him and drew out a sketch pad he’d brought along. He grabbed a pencil and immediately started sketching out schematics for something. ‘So why did Hebe go into the hospital in the first place?’

‘Hysterectomy,’ Mr. Holmes said. ‘Something in her uteral tract was infected…’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I was very uncomfortable listening to it. But I’m a man, you know. We can handle any level of gore, but the minute you mention anything to do with the female reproductive system we’re diving for cover.’

Mr. Stark chuckled.

The conversation continued on, and Jarvis tried to put together what he’d heard. This trip had just seemed to come out of nowhere. Mr. Stark had turned Miss Carter down cold and then come out here. He’d ignored her and come to England to meet relatives he barely knew. Now it seemed he’d done so because there was murder going on around here. Wouldn’t it have been better to _tell_ Miss Carter that rather than acting insensitive and abrasive?

Well, it would be quite upsetting…having your family to be picked off in such a way.

Perhaps he simply hadn’t thought of telling Miss Carter.

Hours later, the train pulled into Stafford Station and they carried their bags onto the platform. Mr. Holmes led them out to where a man and woman were waiting with two cars. Both of them were greying and must have surely been in Mr. Holmes’s service for quite a while. The man, who must’ve been Jim, tossed Mr. Holmes one set of keys and then gestured for Jarvis and Ana to follow him. The woman, most likely Pam, handed Jim the keys to the other car.

It looked like they were going to be in a separate car from Mr. Holmes and Mr. Stark.  
The drive was only twenty minutes. Through the whole trip, Ana and Pam were talking animatedly. They soon came to a large estate in the country. The grounds seemed to stretch for miles, and the gate was intricate. The manorhouse itself was huge and imposing, reminding Jarvis of the splendour of the Georgian era. The red brick manor house stood at four to five stories high and extended out three picture windows on either side. From this angle, it was impossible to see how long back it extended.

The gardens were beautifully kept. The Holmes’s must have owned dogs because Jarvis could hear them barking. There were men out, shovelling the snow out of the drive. They stepped aside as the cars passed and Mr. Holmes and Jim pulled up in front of the front doors.

‘What a beautiful place!’ Ana remarked.

‘Yes,’ Pam said. ‘The Holmeses were gifted with the land and their very first manor house in the early Tudor dynasty. It seems one of them stopped an assassin that had slipped past Henry VII’s guards.’

‘That must be an interesting story to tell the children,’ Ana remarked.

‘Well, they like it.’ Pam got out with a smile.

Jarvis stepped out of the car and helped Ana out too.

Mr. Holmes turned from the front steps where he was waiting with Mr. Stark. ‘Jim?’

‘Yes, sir?’

‘Have their bags taken to their respective rooms,’ Mr. Holmes said. ‘Pam, you come along.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Mr. Holmes led them up into the house. The place was beautiful, and not all that dissimilar to how Mr. Stark liked to keep his mansion. Absolutely spotless, with the odd expensive vase or ornament scattered here and there, and paintings in every room. However, these paintings seemed to be of family members rather than a single man.

Mr. Stark stopped at the landing of the second floor. There was a large painting that depicted three men. The first to catch Jarvis’s eye was the obese man sitting on the chair in the middle, with a cloak and clean shaven. To that man’s left there stood another well-dressed man. This one had sideburns running down his cheeks and he wore a waistcoat and an expensive-looking coat. The man on the other side appeared to be the black sheep, despite the fact that all three were together. He was wearing far more cheap-looking clothes, including a corded jacket and there was clear stubble painted on his face.

‘The Holmes brothers,’ Mr. Holmes said. ‘Our grandfather, Sherrinford, and his younger brothers, Mycroft and Sherlock. This was painted in 1893. Prior to their births, the family had always seemed to produce only one child who survived into adulthood. Then these three came along. They’re the basis of the family as it is now.’

‘And this is them?’ Mr. Stark looked them over. ‘Uncle Mycroft was the one who told ma and pa that the first war was heating up?’

‘That’s right.’ Mr. Holmes turned and led them onwards.

With one last look at the painting, Mr. Stark followed. Jarvis and Ana followed Pam after them. They walked up and into a drawing room of some kind. There was a large group of people there, which included six children playing Monopoly on the floor. Well, five of them were playing it. The youngest – a two year old boy – was watching the others play it. Mind you, it was strange to watch the three year old girl count out money. All those present either had hair tones spanning from brown to black or had lost the colour in their hair.

The vast majority, though, had the same dark brown eyes as Mr. Stark.

The white-haired woman sitting in one of the cushioned chairs leaned forward on her cane. ‘You must be Ainsley’s boy, Howard?’

‘Yeah, I am,’ Mr. Stark said.

Jarvis was surprised at the light smile that appeared on the woman’s lips at Mr. Stark’s abrupt answer.

‘I suppose I better introduce the rest of the family, then,’ Mr. Holmes said. He gestured to the elderly woman. ‘My mother, your Aunt Lucy.’ He then turned to the elderly man who wasn’t sitting too far away and introduced him. ‘Our Uncle Tom, Aunt Avalon’s widower.’

The man stood and reached across, shaking Mr. Stark’s hand. ‘Nice to finally meet you, young man. I’ve heard quite a bit.’

‘Maybe we can be friends anyway,’ Mr. Stark said.

Tom chuckled.

Mr. Holmes smiled and gestured to another woman with faded hair. ‘This is Kate. She’s our cousin, Leland’s widow.’ He then turned to the two that looked as though they had only just entered adulthood. ‘Kate’s son and daughter respectively, Acer and Harper Holmes.’

Acer shot a short salute with his left hand. Harper gave a pleasant smile but didn’t otherwise move from her slouched position.

Mr. Holmes turned to one of the two women in their thirties. He gestured to the older one first, who was standing with a blue-eyed man. ‘My younger sister, Berry, and her husband, Caleb Smith.’ He then nodded to the kids. ‘And their children James, Adam, and Tania.’ As each child’s name was said, the child in question flicked a hand up.

Tania Smith was the child that had been counting out money when they came in.

Mr. Holmes gestured to the other woman in her thirties. ‘And this is our younger sister, Jayda.’

Miss Jayda Holmes shot them a small wave.

Mr. Palmer smirked and turned to the man in his forties. ‘This is Sam June, Hebe’s widower.’ He turned back to the children. ‘And Ruth and Sally are their daughters.’

Each girl glanced up as their names were mentioned. Jarvis looked for signs of mourning in them. He couldn’t find anything. Then Ruth rolled the dice with a little more force than was strictly necessary. Mr. Holmes turned and introduced the last man, followed by the final son.

‘Regina’s husband, Greg Ferrier, and their son, Percy.’

From the way Mr. Stark winced, Jarvis would say that the woman in question had been one of the victims.

Sally lifted her head. ‘Are you gonna make ‘em stop?’ she asked.

‘I’ve got a few ideas,’ Mr. Stark said. ‘Mostly of the technical variety.’

‘Well, that’s the only thing we haven’t tried yet,’ Mr. Smith remarked, his voice carrying the obvious Irish lilt that Jarvis had been expecting. ‘They tried to sneak onto the staff in the last couple of months. Damn stupid, if you ask me.’

Jarvis was startled that no one scolded him for cursing in front of the children.

Mr. Stark just smirked. ‘You mean because you guys _don’t_ hire new people so they stuck out like a sore thumb?’

Miss Holmes chuckled. ‘They got caught like that.’ She clicked. ‘We had fun interrogating them before we turned them over to MI6.’

And they’d been allowed to do that?

‘And that’s how you found out for sure who’d been doing it?’ Mr. Stark guessed.

Tom smirked. ‘Even HYDRA is not immune to the Holmes Intimidation Tactic.’

Mr. Stark smirked and Jarvis wondered what the Holmes Intimidation Tactic was. Then it hit him. _Wait, did he just say HYDRA?_ Apparently, he did because Mr. Stark went on as if he’d heard this before.

‘Well, HYDRA’s not going to stop killing us unless we make them,’ he said. ‘I doubt age will matter all that much to them either.’

Jarvis looked at Mr. Stark. It wasn’t that he was wrong. From what he’d heard of HYDRA, they were more likely to see children as easy targets. But children were not emotionally developed to hear that their lives may be in danger. It wasn’t something you told children. Strangely, though, none of the children themselves behaved in the sort of way that displayed any distress. They just continued on their game. If they were all around Percy’s age, Jarvis would say they didn’t understand. But Ruth and Sally were old enough to understand. James potentially might.

The rest of the family didn’t seem perturbed either.

Mr. Holmes sat down on the end of a couch. ‘They’re moving in the shadows now, so they’re going to be hard to pin down like that.’

‘So was Moriarty’s Syndicate,’ Acer remarked. ‘Grandpa still managed to pin them down.’

‘By pretending to be dead for two years,’ Harper pointed out.

Mr. Stark nodded his head. ‘First thing we’ll need to do is limit their opportunities.’

‘Have you got a plan?’ Kate asked.

‘Yup.’


	2. The Eccentrics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jarvis and Ana learn a little more about the Holmeses while Howard starts work. 
> 
> Jarvis gets invaluable advice.

While the whole family leaned over the schematics Mr. Stark had drawn, Pam led them out of the drawing room or whatever the room was.

‘Don’t feel too put out,’ she said as she took them to their room. ‘When the family begins discourse anyone else just becomes woodwork. Trying to put in two cents just makes you seem rather like a fly to them.’

‘You’re telling me Mr. Stark’s behaviour is normal in the family?’ Edwin asked.

Pam gave him a side-eye. ‘Have you been in Howard’s service long, Mr. Jarvis?’

‘…Since 1942.’ Edwin sounded puzzled.

‘Hm. So since the start of American involvement in the war? Odd.’ She rubbed her ear. ‘Oh, well. Maybe it just takes longer when you come into their service as an adult, rather than being raised in their service.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Jarvis asked.

‘We were all born in this household,’ Pam said. ‘We’ve grown up with the family’s eccentricities, and we’ve grown somewhat used to them.’

‘And mentioning to children that someone wants to kill them?’ Edwin asked.

Yes, Ana had wondered about that too.

Pam gave them a wry smile. ‘Rule one of the Holmeses – whether they bear the name or not: never tar them with the same brush as everyone else.’

Edwin frowned, clearly not sure where this was going. Neither was Ana, to be greatly honest. Pam seemed to pick up on that. She frowned and appeared to consider for a moment.

‘Has Howard ever done things that you consider utterly ridiculous?’ she asked.

‘He does them frequently,’ Edwin said.

Pam nodded. ‘And so did his great-grandfather. Lord Siger Holmes was the master of this estate at the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign until about the late 1860s. At that time, there was a craze for vibrant colours – most particularly a shade known as schloss green. However, Lord Holmes forbade the use of green in anything in the house. He also commanded his wife, his three sons, and all his servants to stand no less than three feet away from anything containing the dye.’

That did sound rather bizarre.

‘So his ridiculous behaviours are a genetic trait?’ Edwin asked.

Ana had a feeling that wasn’t where she was going.

Pam smiled knowingly. ‘You know what’s funny about that? In every household, except for this one, the rate of illness and respiratory difficulties, both resulting in death, skyrocketed. It turned out, years later, that schloss green was given its vibrant colour by arsenic.’

‘You mean to say people were effectively being poisoned in their own homes?’ Edwin demanded. ‘But how could he know that when no one else did?’

‘That’s just what the family’s like,’ Pam said. ‘Their brains are just so incredibly advanced that they’re on a level no one else can hope to touch, let alone understand. The point of hiding things from the children is moot. They’ll find out anyway. No matter how mad or ridiculous they seem to be, they do know what they’re doing.’ She paused. ‘Excepting extraneous circumstances.’ She shook her head. ‘The point of the matter is they have a method to their madness. They’re men of tomorrow, if you’ll excuse the gender bias of that expression, living in an archaic world.’

Edwin frowned. ‘Archaic?’

‘It’s not to us,’ Pam said. ‘But it is to them.’

***

If there was any question as to whether Howard was one of them, it was quashed in the first night. Nancy generally worked in the kitchens. The cook had sent her down to the workshop to check. Well, prior it’d just been one of the spare rooms. Palmer Holmes had it converted when he and Howard had arranged for the engineer cousin to come to England.

Nancy knocked on the door and walked in. ‘Mr. Stark?’

‘Yeah?’ His voice was slightly muffled.

When she looked in, Nancy was only mildly surprised to see he had a small screwdriver between is teeth and he worked with two other tools on some kind of small device. She stepped in properly. ‘Mrs. Lacey, the cook, sent me. She wants to know if you want anything to eat or drink.’

Howard Stark put down one of the tools and pulled the screwdriver out of his mouth. ‘Coffee would be good.’

Nancy smiled to herself. Well, that was healthier than some of the other addictions in this family. ‘Any particular type you’d like?’

‘I’m not really that fussy. Coffee is coffee. As long as it’s the good strong stuff.’ He looked over at her with that wild-eyed look that all Holmeses got when they were in the middle of a thinking binge. ‘Stronger the better actually. Maybe some Irish coffee? Or do you have Brazilian? I heard that stuff’s really good but I’ve never tried it.’

‘I’ll see what I can find.’

***

Jim stepped outside and cracked a smile. Howard’s car had arrived in the wee hours of the morning and Mr. Jarvis was giving it a polish. Jim straightened up his suit jacket and trotted down the stairs to run some routine checks on their own vehicles. Five years, Pam had said, and he still didn’t quite understand the formula.

Oh, well, they could help with that.

‘Good morning, Mr. Jarvis,’ Jim said.

Jarvis looked up. ‘Good morning, Mr. Healey.’

‘Did you have a nice sleep?’ Jim asked as he moved about.

‘We did. The rooms were very comfortable.’

‘I’m glad to hear it.’

They both worked for a few minutes before Jarvis broke the silence. ‘Mr. Healey, I wonder if you might answer a question.’

‘Certainly.’

‘Yesterday, Mr. Goddard said that even HYDRA was not immune to the Holmes Intimidation Tactic.’

‘You’d like to know what the Holmes Intimidation Tactic is?’

‘Please.’

‘The Holmes Intimidation Tactic is built on the perception that anything children do, their parents have moved on from.’ Jim cracked a wry grin. ‘People will easily believe that if a child will draw the intestines out of a dead rat, for example, then the parents will draw the intestines out of a living person.’

Jarvis froze, like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. ‘The…children actually do this?’

‘It’s not a big deal for them,’ Jim said. ‘These kids are all hands-on learners. They always have been. It is not enough for them to read that the length of an intestine is so much. They have to cut the animal open, extract the intestine, stretch it out, and measure it themselves. It’s not really that dissimilar to what American children do to frogs – except when these children do it, they’re actually looking for something specific.’

‘So then why does it scare people?’ Jarvis asked.

‘Because it is done completely methodically. They know precisely where to stab and cut and how to go about it without hurting themselves,’ Jim said. ‘They then proceed to test the strength of the intestine itself through a number of means. It’s extremely unnerving to watch – if you’re not aware of the fact that these people are, at their cores, scientists.’

‘And that helps?’

Jim smiled. ‘Before you make any judgements on their actions, it’s always a good idea to ask them _why_ they’re doing what they’re doing. Without fail, there’ll be a good reason for it.’

Jim checked his watch and then headed back inside, leaving Jarvis to his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to HawkWind1980 for the help in creating the family tree, but I'm still having difficulty uploading it to here.
> 
> If anyone knows any specific ways I can get a word document linked here (and can upload graphs) it would be greatly appreciated.


	3. The Engineer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard begins work to protect his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I couldn't import anything (just ended up with a bunch of computer codes). However, I did manage to create a family tree on My Heritage.com, which can be reached through this link:
> 
> https://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-495356691/spalding?familyTreeID=2

Howard took his shot. The cue ball rolled across the table, knocked the 3 into the 5 and both rolled into the pocket. Howard straightened up and leaned on his pool cue as Caleb moved around for his own shot. There was a knock on the door and Jarvis walked in with the devices he’d finished making that afternoon.

‘They worked, sir,’ he said.

‘Good,’ Howard said.

There were eighteen in all and now they were handed out. Jarvis had been a bit sceptical of creating them for two toddlers but those particular two had a genius-level intellect. They looked, at face value, like ordinary wrist watches. But this family had never done “face value”.

This place seemed to leave Jarvis constantly gobsmacked.

Howard had asked the kids if they had a preference for colour before he’d started building theirs. So each kid’s watch was a different colour. The adults had ones designed to look like ladies or mens watches, just with different designs. They told the time, of course.

‘So what kind of features have they got?’ Acer asked, tapping the face.

‘Well, for starters, they detect all kinds of poison within a two meter radius,’ Howard said. ‘Any kind of poison comes within that distance and the watch will beep like an alarm. I figure that’s enough for us to avoid any more contaminated foods or drink.’

‘Sounds reasonable.’ Sam stepped up to the table to take his turn. ‘What else does it do?’

‘There’s a button at the bottom of the face,’ Howard said.

Sally looked down at her watch and pressed the button in question. A loud alarm suddenly blared. Everyone in the room jumped. Howard smiled to himself. He’d set it at 120 decibels – the exact same as an emergency vehicle siren. Sally hit the button again and the sound stopped.

‘Big decibel,’ Percy said.

Jarvis’s head snapped in the younger toddler’s direction. His jaw dropped open. Howard smirked to himself. The rest of the adults in the room hid their laughter behind various tactics, which included head turning and coughing. Howard was aware that they viewed Jarvis as a highly competent butler but a total novice in the area of their eccentricities. Which, of course, meant they were going to relish thrusting their eccentricities and their genetic genius in his face until he got the message.

Howard almost felt sorry for him.

‘So it detects poison and emits an alarm if we’re ever under physical attack,’ Jayda remarked. ‘I don’t suppose it deflects bullets too?’

Howard grinned. ‘I’m the greatest engineer in the world, but I can only work with what I’ve got.’

It was a nice feeling not to get any disparaging remarks for once. Sure, Jarvis shook his head, but Jim leaned over and whispered something to him. The result was Jarvis freezing up and looking over in surprise. Jim just cocked an eyebrow. Howard didn’t acknowledge any of this. It would be the first time someone had suggested to him that maybe Howard had earned the right to boast.

It was the first time he’d heard it since his parents had died.

***

Acer walked through town with Howard. They were just heading out to get some more bits and pieces for Howard to use. His second cousin had just darted into another hardware store and Acer waited outside with the stuff they’d already purchased. Howard had been very clear about what they needed to do.

_‘To make it impossible for them to track us, we have to make it impossible for them to move in on us.’_

As the old phrase went, that was easier said than done.

‘Free sample!’

Acer looked over in mild interest as a young man with a tray walked down the street. As he passed Acer, he stopped and held the plate out. ‘Free sample?’

_BEEP!_

‘No, thank you.’

A nearly imperceptible flash of annoyance shot over his face. But he moved on. After all, HYDRA didn’t want to draw attention to himself. It was almost laughable how they tried. Acer just felt sorry for anyone else who ingested one of those “free” samples. Acer grinned as he looked down at the watch on his wrist.

Acer turned his head as Howard stepped out of the store. ‘Did you get it?’

‘Yeah, that should do us.’ Howard tucked the newest bag into the satchel Acer was carrying.

‘You know, I just had a poisoning attempt,’ Acer remarked as they started walking back to the car.

‘Really?’ Howard sounded exasperated. ‘I was in the shop for five minutes!’

‘I know.’ Acer pointed to the “free sample” guy walking up ahead. ‘That guy there.’

Howard frowned. ‘And what about people who actually take his food?’

‘Something to worry about.’

‘Better get back then,’ Howard said. ‘I doubt it’ll slow them down even if too many people do keel over.’

‘Hold that thought,’ Acer murmured.

***

Jarvis stared in amazement. ‘That’s astounding. They look completely different.’

‘I thought Miss Carter did disguises,’ Mr. Healey said.

‘Well, she does but...’ He gestured. ‘She’s never gone this far.’

‘She doesn’t use rubber?’ Mr. Healy asked. ‘Are you telling me this woman, who you called a master of disguise, changes everything except the way her face looks?’ He chuckled and shook his head. ‘If she were to be seen head-on by someone who knew her face, her game would be up. And keeping your back to someone you’re spying on...’ He smiled. ‘It makes you stick out a little bit. No, this is how you really do disguises.’

***

Two old men trudged along the street, huddling into frayed blankets. They passed a bottle, wrapped in a brown paper bag, between themselves. As such, they were completely ignored by any and all passers-by. The two men mumbled to each other, words slurred and indecipherable.

Eventually, they slumped into the gutter together and appeared to pass out.

That’s why the conversation was carried on completely within their hearing. Underneath their disguises, Palmer and Acer Holmes made eye contact. This was not a very good thing at all. In fact, it had several “very bad” implications and they’d report back as soon as they could safely leave.

***

‘So they know I’m here?’ Howard checked to be sure. ‘They know I told Peg to take a hike? How could they know all that? They only ones would know would be me, Jarvis, Ana, Peg, and anyone she told.’

‘And who would she tell?’ Jayda asked.

‘Probably would have told the guys in the SSR,’ Howard said. ‘Maybe the other women she lives with.’

‘Women’s boarding house?’ Berry shuddered. ‘I lived in one of those for a month and I couldn’t stand it. You’re over 21. You don’t need a bloody curfew.’

‘I was surprised you lasted that long,’ Palmer remarked. He looked at Howard. ‘I went to visit her once and the old lady didn’t let me past the foyer. Could it be one of them?’

‘Possibly, but I think the SSR is more likely.’ Harper leaned forward in the couch she was sitting on. ‘HYDRA would have infiltrated them by now.’

Howard looked up at her curiously. ‘I knew HYDRA was still around but...really?’

‘Well, then,’ Palmer said. ‘You’ve got an advantage over every other American. MI5 noticed the number of people dying in this family and conceded that we were being targeted. They launched an investigation and found HYDRA. They found them in the government, in the military, even in their own halls.’

‘Let me guess,’ Howard said. ‘They warned every other country in the UN and America completely brushed it off.’

Acer, from where he was clipping his toenails, adopted a rather convincing New Yorker accent. ‘“Oh, no. Don’t be stupid. HYDRA is gone. Cap destroyed them”.’ He dropped the accent. ‘As if one man could destroy an entire regime by crashing a single plane into the arctic.’

Howard sighed. ‘So America’s their strongest foothold. When I get home I’m gonna buy out the Captain America brand and let him fade into obscurity.’

‘Hear, hear,’ Jayda said. ‘And in the meantime?’

‘In the meantime, I need more information,’ Howard said. ‘I can’t actually stop them until I found out how they’re going about this whole thing.’

‘So you need to find out how they choose who to pick off next?’ Palmer asked. ‘I would think it would just be a matter of convenience.’

Howard shook his head. ‘There’s gotta be more to it than that. We want to stop them from killing us, we gotta really cripple them.’

‘They ought to have bases they’re working from,’ Berry said.

Harper nodded and clicked. ‘And key agents. We gotta find out who they are.’

‘If we dismantle it right, the whole place should fall apart,’ Acer theorised.

‘What about blacklisting?’ Jayda suggested. ‘If we find out their names, could we blacklist them?’

‘I could,’ Howard said. ‘My name’s got enough weight that if I say not to hire them, nobody will hire them.’

‘For now,’ Palmer said, ‘let’s focus on the guys _here_.’


	4. Spyware

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jarvis learns something that really should have been obvious.

‘You mean the whole of society’s infiltrated?’ Jarvis asked.

‘American society, mostly, yes,’ Mr. Stark said as he worked on some new device.

‘And...you don’t think we should alert Miss Carter and the SSR to this fact?’ Jarvis asked. ‘They would benefit from knowing.’

‘Maybe.’ Mr. Stark didn’t seem concerned. ‘Problem is they wouldn’t believe us.’

That startled Jarvis. He’d been thinking of going to the nearest phone as quickly as possible and ringing Miss Carter for just that purpose. ‘Sir?’

‘MI5 told every American agency a while ago.’ Mr. Stark huffed. ‘Apparently we have way too much confidence in a single man.’

‘But surely Miss Carter would take the threat seriously,’ Jarvis insisted.

‘Oh, please!’ Mr. Stark looked up at him. ‘I know you admire her, Jarvis, but Peg’s just as human as the rest of us. You’ve gotta remember that she was in love with Steve. She won’t listen either, but not because of arrogance like the rest of us damn fools. She won’t _want_ to believe that Steve’s final sacrifice meant nothing.’

Jarvis froze and turned that over in his head. While often erratic and foolish, Mr. Stark was an expert on what people would and would not buy. Even last year, before he’d gone to that senate hearing, he had stated that they wouldn’t believe him innocent because they didn’t want to. Government officials, he’d said, _hated_ self-made millionaires because they shook up their classist world view. He’d been right about that back then.

Was he right again?

Jarvis thought about it himself. It was true. Miss Carter was in love with Captain America. How upset she’d been when she found out Mr. Stark had been withholding the man’s blood was a testament to that. She would, quite naturally, not want to hear that his death had, in actual fact, been in vain. Would she feel so strongly, though, that she would simply _not_ hear it?

Jarvis had seen a lot of people refuse to acknowledge what they did not want to hear. In Mr. Stark’s line of business, it was a fairly common occurrence. Many in the business would hear something they didn’t like and refused to acknowledge it. This was generally accompanied by losing their prospects and favour. Was the same thing liable to happen to Miss Carter?

‘I don’t see how Miss Carter could fall into the trap, sir,’ Jarvis said.

‘Not thinking of it from the business angle, are you, Jarvis?’ Mr. Stark looked up with an amused smile. ‘Men refusing to acknowledge a failing business venture is quite different from a person refusing to believe that their could’ve-been other half died for nothing. If you’re confused, ask one of the Holmeses.’

Jarvis did so later on.

‘Human minds,’ Miss Holmes explained as she gathered documents from what was easily the largest domestic library he’d ever seen, moving about on an upper level, ‘are excellent at rejecting unfavourable information. It’s how patriarchy has survived for so long; why we as human beings keep going to war; why a woman will give birth many times despite the agony the birthing process causes her. We fall victim to something called “confirmation bias”.’

‘Which is?’

‘Confirmation bias is when you’ve already made your mind up about something. In this case, America’s belief that Steve Rogers died saving the world from HYDRA. They will _ignore_ everything that suggests otherwise and only accept quote-unquote “evidence” that suggests this is the case.’

‘Miss Carter has never failed to acknowledge something because it is unfavourable.’

Then Miss Holmes gave him a strange sort of smile. ‘You believe Miss Carter is an admirable woman, then?’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘What makes you think so?’

‘Miss Carter is an extremely confident and strong woman,’ Jarvis said. ‘Mr. Stark actually respects her, for a start.’

‘Howard respects any woman who respects herself and doesn’t fall into bed with him. It’s the Stark MO,’ Miss Holmes said. ‘What is it about her, specifically, that you admire?’

Startled, Jarvis slowly answered. ‘She is a credit to her profession. She pushed through regardless of the fools who considered themselves superior to her when they had done half as much in the war. She always succeeds on our adventures.’

‘Adventures?’ Miss Holmes’s smile altered somewhat. ‘You mean when you and Miss Carter go off chasing SSR targets?’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘Mr. Jarvis,’ Miss Holmes leaned on the banister, ‘are you aware that your presence on those...adventures is completely illegal?’

That made Jarvis start. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘No, I rather didn’t think so.’ Miss Holmes moved around and descended from the upper level. ‘Neither did Howard. But this family contains a lot of detectives, even if not by trade. We know the law. What you call an adventure, the government calls a mission. When on these missions, federal agents are not permitted to bring or involve civilians, such as yourself.’

Jarvis was silent, her words turning over in his head.

Miss Holmes went on. ‘The first reason is the most obvious. The job of the federal agents is to protect the civilians going about their day-to-day lives. By involving a civilian in a mission is to expose them to the threat that the agent is supposed to be protecting them from. The issue wherein you were proving Howard’s innocence was a completely different kettle of fish, because you were trying to prove your employer innocent of a crime he could have been executed for. That’s job security. Afterwards, you should have had nothing further to do with the agency.’

‘But Miss Carter asked my help,’ Jarvis said.

‘Point two.’ Miss Holmes held up her forefingers. ‘As a civilian on a federal mission, you could come into contact with information you had no business knowing. They control that kind of access _within their own offices_. That brings me to point three: civilians are untrained. They are unprepared to defend themselves, to manoeuvre around the situation efficiently and as safely as possible, and to withstand interrogation.’

‘Withstand interrogation?’ Jarvis asked.

‘Hm.’ Miss Holmes nodded once. ‘The same reason that false confessions are made. People are beaten, tortured, and they say anything that their captors want to hear just to make the pain stop. Federal agents are trained to deal with this, and even they break – civilians are not. You may like to think you would stay strong and not spill any of this aforementioned information that you shouldn’t have access to, but would you really?’

There was a knock at the door. A young lady stepped in. ‘Excuse me, Miss Holmes. Mr. Stark has finished his latest batch of gadgets. The family is to meet in the dining hall.’

Miss Holmes nodded. She looked back at Jarvis. ‘Food for thought.’

That said, she strode out.

***

An assortment of gadgets lay across the table.

The family stood around, staring at them. Astute eyes took in every detail about the newly-invented devices. They were lined up on a particular kind of cloth on the table. To anyone else, the gadgets would be confusing to look at. Their functions would also be considered ridiculous for at least another 20 years.

Tom Goddard shook his head. ‘Only one with Holmes blood could create so much so very quickly. Have you had a wink of sleep?’ He sounded like he knew the answer.

‘Nope.’ Howard popped the “P” at the end of the word.

‘What’s this?’ Sally asked, poking the largest device on the table.

‘A motion sensor,’ Howard said. ‘Hang the sensors up and anytime something larger than a squirrel moves out there, ultraviolet lights will flick on.’

‘The dogs?’ Caleb asked.

‘Yeah, the dogs will set them off,’ Howard said. He’d been formerly introduced to the dogs days earlier, so that they would learn his scent and begin to accept him as a family member. ‘Unfortunately, the technology doesn’t exist for me to build something that’ll isolate _human_ movement.’

‘It hardly matters,’ Berry said. ‘The lights will still ward them off.’ She looked over the next gadget. ‘And what’s this?’ Actually, it was more of a series of gadgets.

‘Bugs, basically,’ Howard said. ‘Carter gave me the idea. She wanted me to make her some bugs for her for her job. I said no because she demanded them along with two grand.’

James cocked an eyebrow – average-IQ people would probably see it as disturbing on a 7-year-old. ‘She does realise that, normally, she would be paying you?’

‘You know, I don’t think that’s really registered.’ Howard smirked to himself. ‘That gravy train got cut off.’

Berry cocked an eyebrow. ‘Why was she on the gravy train in the first place?’

‘My Holmes genius was geared towards technology,’ Howard said, ‘which left my observation skills sadly lacking. I _thought_ she was my friend.’

There was a silence in the room as they contemplated that. For years, the “Holmes Curse”, as Sherlock had once called it, had been to see absolutely everything around them – right down to the most minute of details. With Howard’s birth, the corrective had been found. However, there appeared to be a massive flaw in this remedy to their problem.

Especially with their weakness in social interaction.

Harper leaned over, picking up something that looked like a pen. ‘And what’s this?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm not dead sure about English or American law, but I am certain that, even back in the 40s, it would have been illegal to involve an untrained civilian, such as Jarvis, in a federal mission. I felt it needed to be pointed out to him because, in the show, he seems far too...casual with the whole thing and doesn't appear to be aware that he shouldn't be there.


	5. Photographic Evidence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a little Holmesian spying.

‘Ah.’ Howard chuckled and took the “pen” from her. ‘This is an old one. It’s a camera.’

‘Camera?’ Acer asked. ‘Oh, I get it. You can stand there clicking the top and it looks like you’re just fiddling with a pen, but you’re really taking pictures.’

‘At worst,’ Palmer said, ‘it’ll be an annoying sound but most people will ignore it. By the time they do get fed up and tell you to stop, you’ve already got more than enough pictures.’

‘That’s brilliant even by our standards.’ Harper took the pen again and looked at it. ‘How much film has it got?’ She turned it over in her hands. ‘And _how_ does it take pictures?’

‘The viewfinder’s at the end of the pen, where the nub generally comes out,’ Howard said. ‘There’s a roll of tiny blank negatives in there. When you depress the end, it imprints an image onto the negatives. Once it’s out of film, the end won’t depress anymore and then I open it up, take out the negatives and develop them into actual photographs.’ He chuckled. ‘Last person I showed that to didn’t bother with how it worked.’

‘Most people don’t care how these things work,’ Kate said. ‘They just care that it does.’

‘Hm. Do you mind if we test this out?’ Harper asked.

Kate lifted her eyes in exasperation. The various other members of the family averted their eyes, but smirks marked all their faces. Howard hadn’t known them for very long, but he had noticed that most of his vices and eccentricities came from this branch of the family. If he was that age, and had recently lost his father to those guys, he had a pretty good idea what he would do.

‘As long as you don’t get caught,’ Howard said.

Acer nodded. ‘In and out – that’s it.’

***

Acer stepped up to the building where he and his Uncle Palmer had found the HYDRA agents talking before. Harper walked with him. From the outside, she looked like a skinny adolescent boy. Both of their faces were marked with soot to help the rubber hide their identities. Chimney sweep was always a good disguise, because no one noticed the chimney sweep.

To most people, they all looked alike and hardly anyone would recognise the man at the Sunday Service as the same one who cleaned out their chimney earlier in the week. The sole problem with this plan was solved with the number of personnel bound to be in the base. _Anyone_ could have called the sweeps. So, with that confidence, Acer rang the doorbell of the building they’d singled out.

Shortly the door was opened by a man in uniform.

Acer dropped into a cockney accent. ‘Someone call for a chimney sweep?’

The man eyed them. ‘You get a call to this address?’ His accent sounded more American, which only mildly surprised the siblings.

Acer nodded and held his hand out to his sister. She handed him a slip of paper, which he then handed to the security guard. It was a real chimney sweep company, but one of the most disorganised in England. They’d send sweeps easy if they were called for. But if someone called to verify a sweep had been sent to a particular address, nine times out of ten, they would be scrambling for hours looking for the records.

The guard nodded and looked over at Harper. ‘Generally, they only send one.’

‘Henry here is a new apprentice,’ Acer said, jerking a thumb at his sister. ‘He’ll just be taking notes.’

The guard stepped aside and let them in. He then led them through the base to the first of three chimneys. Acer heard the click of the pen a few times. The guard took it as a nervous habit. That much was clear from the unconcerned look on his face. Acer then proceeded to clean all three chimneys while talking to Harper who appeared to make notes from everything he said.

By the time they stepped out, all 30 negatives of the pen were filled.

***

Nancy stepped into the dark room. Once more, she was sent to Mr. Stark. ‘Do you need anything, Mr. Stark?’

He was currently in the process of developing the pictures Harper had managed to capture in the pen-camera. It was amazing to think those two had gotten in and out of the enemy base without being caught. Then again, they were Holmeses. It was also still strange to think that their grandfather had taken out an international criminal syndicate (officially by himself). The family simply never ceased to amaze.

‘Yeah,’ Mr. Stark said. ‘Bring me back some ham, would you?’ He had the same friendly tone when asking for something as the rest of the family did, which was odd seeing as he didn’t _grow up_ with servants. ‘Preferably roasted. Hmm. With cheese and lettuce. Tell you what, make it a toasted sandwich.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Nancy smiled to herself and left the room.

***

The photos were handed out.

‘So this is the inside of the place?’ Berry asked. ‘Hold on, I know this place. It used to be the woollen mills. Mum went there every weekend.’ She looked over at her. ‘Didn’t you, mum?’

Lucy nodded, frowning. ‘It shut down a few years ago. They said the proprietor’s wife died and he shut it down out of grief.’ A twitch crossed her face. ‘I wondered why your father was side-eyeing it.’

‘Hm.’ Howard was studying one picture in particular. He squinted, scrutinising what he was looking at. The family became silent. They knew what he was looking at would have his attention for some reason. ‘This glow,’ he finally said. ‘What colour was it?’

Harper got up from her seat and walked around to look. ‘Blue, but I couldn’t really make a call on the shade. Sometimes I thought Caribbean, sometimes Blue Ice, sometimes Diamond, and sometimes a very light Steel Blue. Either way, it was a pale colour.’

‘That’s the Tesseract,’ Howard said.

‘Tesseract?’ Greg asked.

‘Yeah.’ Howard put the photo down and gestured with his hands. ‘It’s a glowing blue cube about so big. It’s of unknown origin and it’s the thing Rogers and the Red Skull were fighting over. I initially found it when I went looking for Rogers in the Arctic. When I studied it, it seemed to be an incredibly powerful sort of self-sustaining energy source. Last I knew it was under lock and key in the SSR.’

‘If HYDRA has infiltrated the SSR...’ Jayda said.

‘Likely,’ Acer put in.

‘...then it would explain how they acquired it. How powerful is it, Howard?’

‘The Nazis were building weapons with it,’ Howard explained. ‘Those weapons would have been powerful enough to wipe out New York City and surrounds in the blink of an eye.’

Sam rubbed his jaw. ‘So the odds are that HYDRA will be picking up where the Nazis left off. And they’re working on it so close to us, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the intended target. We’ll have to repossess it.’

‘And how do we do that?’ Acer asked. ‘It was under heavy guard.’

‘Good question.’ Palmer tapped on his knee. ‘There’s only a slight advantage in that we know the layout of the place.’

‘We could go again,’ Harper pointed out.

‘No, no,’ Palmer said. ‘You two have done your bit.’ He grinned. ‘After all, we can’t let you have all the fun. Howard, have you still got those bugs?’

‘They’re sitting in my desk drawer.’

Palmer looked at his sisters. ‘Do you two remember the layout of the place?’

‘If not, I can draw it,’ Lucy stated. ‘I was certainly there often enough.’ She looked at Acer and Harper. ‘Whereabouts was this Tesseract?’

‘Second chimney.’ Acer looked at his sister.

Harper leaned over, picked up the photo and took it to her great aunt.

Lucy looked at the picture. ‘Yes, I know the area. That’s where they sold the alpaca wool from.’

‘Okay,’ Caleb said. ‘So we know where to look, but what are you going to do about the guards?’ He looked at his wife.

Berry and Jayda looked at each other. Then Berry looked at her husband. ‘We’ll think of something.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't dead sure on the exact shade blue of the Tesseract but I went with the closest matches.


	6. The Base

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to retrieve the Tesseract.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late. I've literally not had internet on my laptop all day.

Howard stood on lookout with Palmer.

The girls took out two small guards with none of the brutality that Peg used and a lot of precise finesse that Peg, it seemed, just wasn’t capable of. Two or three hits and the men were down. Such little effort just for their uniforms. Sam and Greg then dragged the men away while the two women slipped inside.

‘So who clued you in anyway?’ Palmer asked. ‘If it was Dr. Shields, you’d have called us 5 years ago.’

‘You wouldn’t believe me,’ Howard said.

Palmer glanced over at him. ‘Okay. Anything else they told you?’

‘Yeah. Apparently HYDRA’s still holding a POW.’

‘Friend of yours?’

‘You know, I don’t know I’ve actually got any of those.’ Howard frowned. ‘But I did like him.’

Palmer chuckled. ‘We’ll look into it when we’re finished here.’

Howard nodded.

***

There were certain features that were considered masculine, and certain features that were considered feminine. However, feminine features in males left them seen as young boys who had not yet full matured. This wasn’t what they needed though. The disguises were extensive, making two women in their 30s look taller and stockier than they really were. They carried a bag – something they’d already observed the actual guards doing so it wasn’t going to stand out.

When they spoke, they kept their voices down, barely above a whisper.

‘Not bad,’ Berry remarked as she slipped another bug onto the wall. It was small enough to be mistaken for a real insect. ‘But they must’ve cost a mint to make. And Carter just expected these for free? What am I saying? Of course she did! Stupid rich people stereotypes.’

‘Yeah, really.’ Jayda buttoned her lip as they passed a set of real guards. As they passed, she slipped something into the nearest one’s pocket. As soon as they were out of earshot, she spoke again. ‘I actually half-think the woman’s got The Voice.’

‘Really?’ Berry frowned. ‘What makes you say that?’

Jayda pulled the key out of her pocket. She unlocked the door. The two of them stepped in. So deep in the base, it was hardly a surprise to see the room was unguarded. The surroundings had been heavily manned, on the other hand. They thought no one could get past their defences so far. Setting up on the Holmes’s home turf was probably not the brightest idea for this though. Then again, HYDRA were trying for world domination.

No one had ever done that. Sure, a couple of people in history had come close, but it’d never actually happened. You had to be overconfident to a delusional level to believe you could.

In the centre of the room, under the glass atop a podium, there stood a glowing blue cube. The Tesseract.

‘Well, the way Jarvis talked about her for starters,’ Jayda said as they set up.

One of the first things Howard had said: _“Don’t touch it directly. The Red Skull did and seemed to disintegrate.”_

Jayda continued explaining as they slid the bug into the alarm system to disable it and then began extracting the Tesseract in the exact way that Howard had recommended, with the devices he’s provided. ‘He didn’t give me any specific reason why he admired her. He just recited a few lines. I’m sure he’s said them before.’

Berry nodded thoughtfully. ‘From the way, they describe Carter, she’s one of those women who is either considered savage or a man born into a woman’s body.’

‘And the difference that marks a woman as one or the other is charisma. Carter obviously has it.’

‘And the other two women they talked about – Dottie Underwood and Whitney Frost – obviously didn’t have it. They couldn’t sway an entire room of people to their perspective when their fists failed them, whereas Carter could.’ Berry clicked her tongue. ‘You’re right. Carter must have The Voice.’

The dampers clicked in and the two women picked up the Tesseract. The sisters carefully wrapped the device up and tucked it into the bag. They zipped up the bag and walked out with it. There was no one out in the corridor either. Of course, the lack of people around was precisely why they’d decided to do this at night.

The two of them walked.

‘How long’s Howard known Carter?’ Berry asked.

‘Since the war, I think,’ Jayda said. ‘Jarvis only met her last year.’

Berry frowned. ‘I looked at her service record.’

‘What do you think?’

‘She was put on that Project Rebirth Boot Camp as a character test – and she bungled it.’

‘How the heck do you bungle being a character test?’ Jayda asked.

‘Because after she punched the first guy out, no one else was game to disrespect her.’ Berry rolled her eyes. ‘Needless to say, her CO wasn’t happy. And neither was she later on. Apparently she needed to be _told_ she was supposed to be a character test.’

Jayda scoffed. ‘She was sent to train a bunch of men who were all candidates to become a super-soldier. I knew average people were slow but...Really, it had to be explained?’

The blaring of the alarm echoed through the building just as they came to the door. Jayda pushed it open and they slipped through. They passed men going in the opposite direction of them. No one stopped them or even noticed them as anything close to suspicious.

‘So what was your red herring?’ Berry asked as they stepped out onto the street and headed for the rendezvous.

‘A ladies’ handkerchief hanging out of a guard’s pocket,’ Jayda said.

Berry chuckled.

They shot through the streets. As they moved, they blended into the night. The street lights did little to illuminate them in the dark uniforms. They’d grown up around here anyway. They knew the area like their late great-uncle had known the city of London. Even if they were being chased, they would have lost their pursuers with all the twists and turns they took. As they ran, they yanked the identity-concealing rubber from their features.

The car was waiting at the end of the final street.

***

Pam stood at the window, watching as the cars returned.

The jovial mood of the family members, clear even from the distance, told her all she needed to know. The Tesseract had been recovered. She turned her head and gave a sly grin to Mr. Jarvis. From his doubts of the matter, she’d say he’d been so overwhelmed and impressed by Miss Carter that he’d been blinded to the ability of his own employer.

_‘He’s never done anything like this before.’_

_‘The man constantly needs to be reminded to eat, never mind joining in on an adventure such as this.’_

_‘If he ever does leave the house, it’s to venture to the office!’_

Pam still remembered what Jim had said that had silenced Mr. Jarvis’s protestations.

_‘The man grew up in New York’s lower east end. Just because he doesn’t go looking for trouble doesn’t mean he can’t handle himself when he finds it.’_

Pam was of the opinion, mostly from talking to Mrs. Jarvis, that Miss Carter engaged in what was referred to as steamroller tactics coupled with a painful dose of a black and white morality.

_Well, this is no place for a black and white morality._

Mr. Jarvis spoke up, sounding gobsmacked. ‘You mean they...pulled it off?’

‘Of course they did,’ Jim said. ‘I keep telling you: genius isn’t a decorative title they like to claim. They are geniuses and they prefer using that over any brawn they may or may not have.’

Mr. Jarvis was silent for a long moment. ‘But he seemed rather helpless against Miss Underwood.’

Ah, yes, Howard had told the family about that. Palmer had told Jim and Pam in the hopes they could do something with it. She knew just what to do with it.

‘Not helpless,’ Pam said. ‘He was feeling his way through the dark, so to speak. He had no idea who those people were or what they wanted; he had no idea of the vendetta against him. By the time he worked it out, he was already under the influence of Dr. Fennhoff’s ring.’

Jim nodded in agreement. ‘He was completely blindsided. In this case, he knows what he’s going up against.’

Mr. Jarvis frowned and looked down again. By this time, the whole bunch of them were moving into the house, laughing. Howard had the bag containing the Tesseract held carefully. Apart from that, though, he was laughing and joking with his cousins as they all just about bounded into the house.

‘But Miss Carter...’ Mr. Jarvis began.

Jim stopped him right there. ‘All right, Mr. Jarvis. Can you please excuse yourself from the Carter Headspace for five minutes? This is the Holmes family, even if they don’t all carry the same name. In the space of the last century, they have saved the entirety of western society from total collapse and anarchy, they have broken down the first international crime syndicate, they have acquired crucial information that helped the allies win both World Wars, and they have pushed science above and beyond what it had been before. This is no place for a woman who would fit in perfectly with the most militant of suffragettes.’

Pam didn’t blame Jim for his outburst.

And Jarvis looked suitably contrite.


	7. A Self-Sustaining Energy Source

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the Tesseract in their hands, the Holmes begin planning to take on HYDRA - with a little help.

The blue glow was familiar to Howard. Last time, he didn’t get to study this as extensively as he would’ve liked. They were in the middle of a war and the generals hadn’t seen a practical use for it. So it went on the backburner and he didn’t have the chance until now.

‘Levels?’ he called over his shoulder.

‘Holding,’ Harper called back.

Palmer walked over and stood next to him by the console. ‘So what is it? What’s its function?’

‘From what I could tell, it’s a self-sustaining energy source,’ Howard said. ‘Nazis were using it to build weapons.’

‘That’s all?’ Jayda asked.

‘Yup.’

Palmer scratched the back of his neck. ‘Well, that’s kind of limited. How boring. No wonder they lost the war.’ He looked at Howard. ‘What are you thinking?’

‘Right now?’ Howard asked. ‘Seems like a good way to power my factory.’

‘I’d agree with that,’ Berry said. ‘Cost-efficient, and if you can eliminate the possibility of a power failure, all the better.’

‘Speaking of which,’ Howard said, ‘if I were to ease off on the weapons, what would you say I should go with instead?’

‘Technology,’ Acer said. ‘You invented a bunch of stuff in less than a week.’ He tapped the watch on his wrist. ‘Just as well anyway. If you stuck with weapons, I’d consider it wasted genius.’

Howard smiled to himself.

_Yes...it would have been._

***

Greg picked up the teacup and took a sip. He kept his eyes on the screen, watching the HYDRA agents run around, trying to work out how they could have possibly lost the Tesseract. It was hilarious, to be honest. Greg glanced over at Sam. His in-law sat with the headphones on, listening to what was being said in there.

The phone rang and Greg reached over. ‘Hello, Holmes Manor. Greg Ferrier speaking.’

‘Mr. Ferrier, this is Agent Hay of MI5.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Greg said, watching a particularly amusing display by the Neo-Nazis. ‘I presume this is about the report my brother-in-law, Palmer Holmes, sent you?’

‘Yes.’ The MI5 Agent on the other end of the line sounded a tad upset, and Greg couldn’t really blame him. Federal agents typically didn’t like civilians getting involved in these things. Of course, these particular civilians were already involved. Agent Hay continued. ‘May I ask exactly how you got the bugs to put into the base?’

‘It turns out that Howard Stark is the son of my father-in-law’s other sister.’

‘He had two sisters?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘So Howard Stark is a Holmes?’

‘In all but name.’

There was a silence on the other end, and then a muttered, ‘That explains so much.’

Greg suppressed a snort of laughter.

Agent Hay took a deep breath. ‘Very well. You have the surveillance in front of you?’

‘Mr. June and myself are monitoring it now,’ Greg said. ‘We’re making notes of anything of interest. Am I right in assuming you want the gathered data?’

‘If possible,’ Agent Hay said. ‘We’d also like to see Mr. Stark about connecting us to the surveillance equipment as well. We’re prepared to negotiate a price with him.’

‘I’m sure he can rig something up. I’ll discuss it with him at the first opportunity.’

‘Thank you, Mr. Ferrier. Good day.’

‘Good day.’ Greg hung up.

‘Who was that?’ Sam asked.

‘MI5.’ Greg finished his tea. ‘They want access to all this.’

‘Of course they do,’ Sam remarked. ‘You gonna go see what Howard’s doing?’

‘Well, I did say “first opportunity”.’ Greg picked up the dirty cups and saucers. ‘You want anything while I’m out?’

‘No. I’m good.’

***

They’d sent a couple of agents to discuss what was going to be done. They knew the family already had a plan of some description. It was just what that plan was that confused them. Howard was familiar enough with governmental types like this to know that he had to put aside his toys in order to have this conversation. Of course, not entirely. They had their field van in the back courtyard, where he was connecting their various monitors and microphones up to the frequency his bugs were on.

‘It’s a simple enough plan, really,’ he said. ‘We’re going to use fire.’

The agent frowned, confused. ‘Fire?’

‘Not actual fire,’ Palmer said. ‘We’re just going to make them think there’s a fire. Fire makes people evacuate. It doesn’t matter where they are or what they’re doing, if someone yells “fire” they will vacate the premises. When they do this, they will also grab anything of value that they don’t want burnt up.’

‘From there, we wait for them to evacuate and haul them in,’ Howard said.

‘By “we” you mean _us_ ,’ the field commander said in a pointed tone.

‘Yeah, probably,’ Howard said with a grin. ‘You guys are better at this sort of thing anyway.’

A few of the agents had a good chuckle.

The commander composed himself. ‘Well, it should give us the opportunity to access their files.’

‘Hm.’ Howard nodded. ‘Okay! There you go. You got access to their base.’

The agents crowed around the screens, looking over what they had.

‘Are those moving pictures?’ one of the agents asked.

‘Something like it.’ Howard leaned over and adjusted the controls. ‘I figured it’d be more useful to you to be watching what these guys are doing rather than just listening to it.’ He began flicking through frequencies. ‘You can also listen to everything they are listening to – from their conversations, to conversations _they’re_ bugging.’

Howard suddenly stopped as he heard a familiar voice.

‘Which,’ he said, ‘apparently includes the SSR.’

‘I presume you know them?’

‘Carter’s been giving him trouble the past two years,’ Palmer said with a chuckle. Just then, a forceful woman’s voice came through. ‘Is that her?’

‘Yup.’

They listened for a few moments, a few snorting in amusement or disbelief as Carter said “and Howard’s being absolutely no help”.

One of the technicians broke the silence. ‘My God, I didn’t know there was a female Attila the Hun.’

His buddy grinned at him. ‘Now you do.’

***

Inside the mansion, Berry, who’d come in to check on the guys, listened in on the exact same conversation. If any proof was needed that HYDRA had infiltrated the SSR, it was now in front of them. They were listening in on a phone conversation that should have been on a secure line. The sort of data Carter and Sousa were discussing was clearly sensitive.

They were talking about the current mission, and their plans for said mission.

Not the sort of thing you’d want the enemy listening in on.

Berry was paying more attention to the way Carter was speaking. She nodded to herself. ‘Well, give Jayda her due. She can now say “I called it”.’

Caleb leaned back from the headset they had all leaned close to and folded his hands behind his head. ‘So who wants to tell Mr. Jarvis that his hero-worship is severely misplaced?’

‘Don’t be mean,’ Berry told him. ‘The man clearly led a sheltered life. I would be shocked if he had ever encountered an overtly headstrong woman prior to meeting Carter. Most of them have been taught, and accepted, their place in society.’

‘I’m surprised this woman can function like this at all,’ her mother said from the other chair. ‘If a woman steps too far outside the line, she’s typically shunned and ostracised. She’s a social pariah and ends up as a spinster. Even you and Jayda have received odd looks from time to time, even Regina and Hebe...’ Her voice caught as she said her late daughter’s name. She quickly recovered herself though. ‘But that was always passed off as the family you came from; the blood coursing in your veins which you can’t do anything about. People know that’s just what this family is like. God trades you a bit of social finesse for extreme intelligence. This woman is merely raging against a system that is not to her liking. You can hear it in her voice.’

That, and Lucy Holmes had been married to Lambart Holmes since she was nineteen.

She’d picked up a few things.


	8. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MI5 is about to move in.

Howard moved around the new monitoring device. This one had heat sensors, designed specifically to pick up the body temperature of human beings. They were going to hit them tonight. As the engineer, Howard had devised literally all the tech they were using.

Like Jayda had told Jarvis, it was actually illegal for civilians to be involved in federal missions. There was some leeway you could use, which allowed for victims or potential victims to take measures to protect themselves. If Leland was still alive, Palmer had told him, he’d have been allowed in close because of his job (he’d followed in his father’s footsteps and become a kind of specialised detective). However, Acer and Harper weren’t yet old enough to reach the same kind of thing.

Still, they could indirectly assist.

Howard’s gadgets, for instance, were highly appreciated. As promised, they had negotiated a price with him. Howard kept it low because he was doing it more out of interest for his family’s preservation, as well as his own. All the same, it was nice to have people remember that he was providing a service he didn’t have to and offer to compensate him – unlike someone else he could mention.

_Hm. That makes me sound really put-out about the money, doesn’t it?_

Howard looked up as there was a knock and Jarvis let in an agent. If Howard wasn’t mistaken, the fair-haired man that walked in was one of their technicians – or whatever they officially called the guys who handled their devices. Howard straightened up and Jarvis stood at the periphery of the door.

‘I’m not early, am I, Mr. Stark?’ he asked.

‘Nope.’ Howard wiped his hands on a rag and led the agent over to the table. ‘All right. We can watch all movements from the monitor over there.’ He pointed to the device he’d just been working on. ‘Honestly, for this whole thing you’ll just need two things. The first is this.’ He picked up a handful of extremely rancid objects, roughly about the size of a quarter.

‘Pshew!’ The agent waved his hands. ‘Smells like something’s been burnt to a cinder.’

‘Exactly.’ Howard nodded. ‘Stick ‘em outside the building and the people inside will think something’s burning.’ He picked up a canister. ‘Combined with this it should make them evacuate.’

‘And what is that?’

‘Trigger gas,’ Howard said. ‘The gas itself is odourless and harmless, but it will set off the smoke detectors. I’ve tested the gas on several here and it works every time.’

The agent nodded. ‘It’s a pity you’re an American millionaire.’

‘Why’s that?’ Howard asked.

‘Because if you weren’t we’d hire you,’ he remarked.

Howard chuckled and shook his head. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

The agent chuckled too. He shook his head and then sobered. ‘So what was that woman’s problem?’

‘Oh, you mean Peggy Carter?’ Howard noticed Jarvis suddenly look curious at the mention of Peg’s name. He ignored it though. ‘Aunt Lucy was right. She’s raging against the system. Always has.’

‘Why?’ the agent asked. ‘Most women are quite happy with it.’

‘Oh, they’re not happy with it.’ Howard grinned. ‘I mean, seriously, would you be happy with someone else telling you where you should be all the time? Most have accepted it, though. They know they can’t change it, so they make the most of it.’ He’d been taking some observation tips from his cousins since he’d been here. Amazing what you could learn about someone by the tiniest details they didn’t realise they were exhibiting. ‘A few, though, try to change the system. Some are more aggressive about it than others.’

‘Like the Suffragettes?’ the agent asked.

Howard nodded thoughtfully. They’d certainly gone overboard, he’d say, but they had a very valid point. They did work, and they did pay taxes. Why shouldn’t they have the right to vote? It was a reasonable question, and the men had refused to answer it (because they had no answer) so...bang, suffragettes.

But, yeah, same kind of concept.

Howard was aware of Jarvis in the background, looking surprised, alarmed, and somewhat offended on Peg’s behalf. He went to open his mouth, but Howard cut him off before he could stick his foot in it. Jarvis was too impressed by Peg. Howard had made a mistake in introducing them. Had he known about these cousins then, he’d have called them to clear his name rather than Peg. And they had a number of advantages over her.

For starters, there was more than one of them.

The agent chuckled and shook his head as Howard handed him the canisters and the chips. ‘Still, I’ve never seen a woman behave like that in response to it.’

‘That’s because most of them are more like my Aunt Lucy.’

The agent nodded. ‘Thank you for the equipment, Mr. Stark. You’ve already gotten your payment?’

‘Yup, and you’re welcome.’

The agent smiled and left the room. Howard was expecting it as Jarvis closed the door after him. He returned to the monitoring device and began prepping it. Howard wanted it in full working order before they got to work. Jarvis opened and closed his mouth a few times, clearly unsure on where to begin.

He finally settled on. ‘Miss Carter?’

‘Yup,’ Howard said. ‘We were eavesdropping on HYDRA, and they were eavesdropping on her.’

‘On her?’ Jarvis asked, sounding concerned.

‘Well, on the SSR,’ Howard remarked. ‘And Peg and Sousa were talking on the phone. Wasn’t much to listen to, to be honest. It was mostly about the trouble she’s having with her current mission and complaining about me.’

‘Well, to be fair, sir, she doesn’t know what’s going on here,’ Jarvis pointed out.

‘And that’s the point,’ Howard stated. ‘She doesn’t know.’ he glanced up as Jarvis opened his mouth. Howard, guessing what he was about to say, quickly cut him off. ‘And she doesn’t need to know. It isn’t her business.’

Jarvis pressed his lips together. ‘With due respect, sir, you did involve MI5. Is it their business?’

‘Yes, because this is happening on British soil, and they’re the domestic intelligence agency.’ Howard looked up at him. ‘Peg may have been born here, she may have the appropriate accent but we’ve Americanised her. She holds the exact same attitude as her American-born male co-workers.’

‘What do you mean?’ Jarvis asked.

‘Not to generalise, but us Americans as a whole seem to have an inflated sense of self-importance.’ Howard pulled a face. ‘Most of us are all right, but the loudest of us are the ones with that. I mean, look at Thompson when you first met him. Sure, he’s been toned down a bit.’

‘By Miss Carter,’ Jarvis pointed out.

‘I’m getting to that.’ Howard leaned on the machine and looked at his butler. ‘What’s more, there’s this idea that _America_ won the world wars. We didn’t. We joined the First World War in its last legs and then had little-to-nothing to do with the Treaty of Versailles. In the war just passed, it was the allied forces that took down Hitler’s Third Reich. Not the Americans exclusively, but the _allied forces_.’

‘What about Captain America?’ Jarvis asked.

‘What about him?’ Howard responded. ‘He was a sales gimmick built around Steve Rogers that people liked too much. So it became a serial. His defeat of the Red Skull really had nothing to do with the defeat of the Nazis, when you look at it objectively. In fact, just last year, they released several articles which primarily credited Churchill and the RAF.’

‘I suppose...’

‘Of course,’ Howard said. ‘No war has ever been won by a single man – ever. Saying that we owe it all to Steve is complete rubbish. He was inspirational, yes, I’ll give him that, but he didn’t win the war. When he went down, we still couldn’t see an end in sight.’

Jarvis was silent for a moment. ‘You seem less...impressed by the Captain that you have been.’

Howard looked up at him. ‘Give it twenty or thirty years, and you’ll be glad for it.’

***

‘You know what? You’re right. It’s a shame he’s rich and American.’ The field commander, Agent Weston, picked up the canister and turned it over in his hands. ‘I wish our engineers could construct things like this at such short notice.’

‘Don’t let them hear you say that, sir,’ Agent Morris said with a slight grin. ‘They might get jealous.’ He looked over the floor plans that Mrs. Holmes had provided them with. ‘Well then, now that the Genius Family has handled the details, what’s _our_ plan of attack?’

‘Right.’ Agent Weston set the canister down and leaned over the map with the rest of his men. He held his hand out and a pen was placed in his palm. He uncapped it and started marking spots out on the map with dots as he spoke. ‘The chips will be planted here, here, here, and here.’

‘And the canisters?’

This time Agent Weston marked the spots out with short lines. ‘There’ll go in here, here, and here. It should be enough to permeate the air of the whole building.’ He then circled areas on the map. ‘Our men will lie in wait at all the exits. We apprehend them as they come out.’

‘And the family?’ Agent Lawson asked. ‘I remember Leland Holmes. Do you think his children aren’t going to be just the same?’

Agent Weston pressed his lips together. ‘They’re not the kind of people who will sit idly by while their lives are in danger, but they have promised to keep their distance.’

‘Do you believe them?’ Agent Morris asked.

‘...I believe any interference won’t be detrimental to the operation.’ Agent Weston cleared his throat. ‘Let’s get a move on, lads. We have to be there by nine.’


	9. The Mouse Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to move in.
> 
> A familiar face shows up at the Estate.

Howard checked his watch.

Nearly nine o’clock. That meant the whole thing was about to get started. Howard leaned over his monitor. The screen would tell him exactly what he wanted to know. Around the room, various other members of the family were at several other devices. All of them were designed to monitor MI5’s operation.

Palmer had assured him that they expected the family to do _something_ , and this was relatively mild, all things considered.

‘Smoke alarms are going off,’ Ruth reported from where she was leaning over a dial.

The monitoring station had been moved from the small room it’d been in before to the makeshift lab. Howard knew for a fact that Palmer was already planning to build a proper lab for Howard’s visits to the estate. Still, this would do for the moment.

Sam spoke up from the monitoring station. ‘They’re heading out the ex...Oh, damn!’

‘What?’ Acer asked as everyone else turned to look.

‘They’re heading for some exits we didn’t know about,’ Sam stated. ‘Some of ‘em are gonna get away.’

Howard scowled. Still...an idea came into his head.

‘They must’ve put those in after they moved in,’ Berry stated. ‘Do you think they’ll change location?’

‘If they’ve got any brains they will,’ Palmer said.

‘Hm.’ Howard made his decision. ‘Okay, plan B then. I need to make a long-distance call.’ Obviously it was the intelligence agencies that didn’t listen on account of the awe that surrounded Cap. There was one person who had _never_ been overly impressed with him.

‘Knock yourself out,’ Palmer said.

***

MI5 caught everyone who ran out of the doors. Even at the end, they realised that they couldn’t possibly have them all. A thorough search of the base after the fact confirmed the presence of newly-installed trapdoors. The commanders of this particular base escaped through them.

Agent Weston mused, as he sat in his office going over the documents they’d acquired from the base, that they should have expected something like this. The woollen mills would have had to be adapted for the base of operations of a group like HYDRA.

Right now, though, he was staring at a document that he could simply not make any sense of. It had been locked in a metal safe, so they must’ve felt it was secure in there even in the instance of fire. He’d like to say it’d taken their best code breakers to crack it open. But it actually took hours and then Jayda Holmes came in, spent ten minutes on it, and then had it open. The file was marked _CONFIDENTIAL: MODUS OPERANDI._

Still, they couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Part of Weston’s pride demanded his people work it out themselves. All the same, they had tried. They had put their best men on the case. Still, they had come back with nothing. It grated to ask civilians for help, even if they were already involved. After all, these were the people they were supposed to be protecting.

Still, national and international security was far more important than any man’s pride.

***

‘It was a set-up?’

‘I guess they worked out where we were.’

‘The sooner we get this operation done, the better.’

‘Well, we’ve lost the Tesseract. What are we supposed to do?’

‘The entire family are in one building. It doesn’t take much to plant a bomb.’

***

Agent Hay walked out of the interrogation room. They’d gotten a good chunk of them – better than ever before – but several had still escaped. There were agents spying on the building, but so far the HYDRA agents hadn’t returned. He wasn’t really surprised to find himself handed the official floor plans of another building in town by Palmer Holmes with the statement, ‘This time we stole theirs rather than relying on our memories.’

As annoying as their tendency towards pre-emptive actions (in areas that endangered their lives) was, there was something to be admired. The Holmeses were the epitome of British dignity. Every word and outward emotion was measured and purposeful. Even the children, who lacked impulse control, responded to terrifying situations in logical ways.

If it wasn’t clearly a God-given gift for an entire family, he’d feel worse about it.

***

Jim knew about the call Howard had made.

That deal with that in due course though. In true Holmes fashion, though, the family had climbed up onto the roof and were reclining on the tiles as they watched the fireworks ring in the New Year. A few of them had even indulged their eccentricities to the point of putting sunglasses on so they could observe them.

Jarvis looked like he was beginning to understand.

He’d taken that particular quirk with barely a change in expression.

***

A tall, intolerant-looking man in a military uniform pulled up in front of the gates. He got out and checked the bit of paper he had with him. Confirming the address, he stood up and strode to the gate. A man, likely a servant of some kind, came to greet him. Before the man could say anything, the soldier flicked out his ID. The servant nodded and opened the gate.

‘Welcome to the Holmes Estate, Colonel,’ he said. ‘Please come in.’

The Colonel nodded. He followed the man up the pathway to the manor house and in the front doors. It wasn’t very often he was in places like this. It kind of reminded him of a certain millionaire’s tastes though. There was a man in a suit waiting in the foyer, clearly the head of domestic staff. Under his arm, he held a folder of some kind.

What was Howard doing in this neck of the woods?

‘Colonel Chester Philips?’ the man asked.

‘Yes,’ Philips said.

‘I’m Jim Healey, the household butler,’ he said. He then addressed the other man. ‘Joe, return to your duties.’

The man that’d brought him in nodded and left.

Mr. Healey nodded his head. ‘This way please, Colonel.’ He handed him the file as Philips followed him up the stairs. ‘This is the basic gist of why Howard called you over here at such short notice.’

Philips nodded and took the file. As he followed Healey through the building, he looked over the files. Most of them were coronary reports, with some very big points of interest. MI5 and MI6 had both set notes on them. The only one that didn’t have reports from the British Intelligence was the one that told Philips _exactly_ what Howard was doing here.

_Ainsley Stark nee Holmes._

Glancing at the bottom of the page confirmed his suspicions.

_Living Descendants: Stark, Howard A. W. (son)_

Healey opened the door and led Philips in. ‘Colonel Philips.’

‘Thanks, Jim.’

Philips was amused, and not really surprised, to see Howard Stark leaning over some kind of computer – like they had back in the war. And, of course, he was wearing his sunglasses indoors. Carter may have thought him ridiculous for that particular quirk, but she was an intolerant woman without the reasoning of years of combat experience to harden her.

As it was, there were several people around the lab he’d been brought into. The youngest was a 7-year-old boy who seemed to be watching the screen of one of the pieces of equipment Howard had set up. The ones in the actual lab seemed to all have the same dark-haired and dark-eyed colouring that Howard carried. Philips felt entirely secure in assuming.

Philips had yet to meet any highly intelligent person who _didn’t_ have some strange quirks. If these people were Howard’s family, like he suspected, Philips expected to see a lot more of it. Howard turned slightly, not bothering to remove his sunglasses, and addressed Philips.

‘Colonel. Glad you could make it.’

Philips stepped forward. ‘Well, you mentioned HYDRA. We’d be a pack of idiots if we ignored you.’

From the looks on many of their faces, Philips had a feeling he’d want to punch somebody in an American defence system very soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup! Col. Phillips is here!
> 
> I always got the feeling that he was unimpressed with Rogers - even after the serum. I really don't think _he_ would have dismissed the idea of HYDRA surviving Rogers' suicide dive (because it was a _suicide_ dive).


	10. Zola's Algorithm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HYDRA's modus operandi for world domination is decoded...and it's terrifying.

Philips hated it when he was right, but that’s what experience did to you.

Standing next to Stark, he glared at the Tesseract like it’d offended him. Typical! Of course, Philips had heard the notion that Rogers won them the war and destroyed HYDRA. He’d thought it was just a morale-booster and hadn’t expected it to be taken so seriously that they completely disregarded any reports of HYDRA.

And what was the result? HYDRA infiltrated the SSR (and not just them you could bet) and stolen the Tesseract. Only good thing was that they’d attacked what was clearly a family of geniuses and been stupid enough to have it this close to them. Stood to reason that they were gonna get their arses handed to them in a big way.

One attempt to catch them had failed. That was because MI5 had relied on the information that the family had given them and, probably with the hope they could wrap this up quickly so soon after Christmas, not done any of their own research. As Stark’s cousin, Palmer Holmes, had said, ‘It’s technically the holidays so they don’t want to do more work than they have to.’

Philips had given orders for his men to be discreetly moved to Staffordshire. The Holmeses had found where they were hiding out. Now all that was left was to scope out the area in its entirety – properly this time – and move in both with MI5 and a US military unit.

There was a brief knock at the door, pulling Philips out of his musings.

Palmer Holmes strode in with a file tucked under his arm. ‘MI5 wants us to look at this. They can’t make heads or tails of it.’

‘Yeah?’ Stark turned and took the file from him. He flicked it open. ‘A scientific formula?’

‘That’s all we could really tell,’ Palmer said.

This was gonna be a long haul.

***

Nancy was boiling the coffee for Mr. Stark.

As she waited on the kettle, she listened to Mrs. Lacey and Mrs. Jarvis chatting behind her. Nancy wasn’t entirely sure where the ginger woman came from. All she could gather from her accent was that she was from somewhere in Europe. Nancy had never really been outside of Staffordshire though.

Mrs. Lacey was half-chuckling as she said, ‘You seem really involved in looking after the kids. Do you have any of your own?’

‘I’m afraid not.’ There was something in Mrs. Jarvis’s voice that Nancy couldn’t quite pin down.

Mrs. Lacey apparently could though. ‘Oh, I see. Well, there’s hope for the future.’

‘In what way?’ Mrs. Jarvis asked as the kettle whistled and Nancy grabbed the mitt so she could pour Mr. Stark’s coffee. ‘I can hardly see Mr. Stark settling down and having any children.’

‘Many of his father’s old friends and acquaintances would have said the same for the older generation,’ Mrs. Lacey said. ‘I was a young girl when Reginar Stark first started coming around here, but I still remember. Starks have a tendency to indulge in hedonistic pursuits until some point in their 30s. When they reach this age, they become bored with skirt-chasing and will genuinely fall in love. Howard’s only just entered his 30s. I suspect it’ll be no longer than 7 years.’

Nancy wasn’t paid to listen to idle gossip, so, as much as she was dying to stay and listen, she placed the mug on a tray with Mr. Stark’s roast beef sandwich and carried the lot out of the kitchen. She walked the familiar way to the house and into the study, which she had heard was much larger than the regular study of the average household.  
Howard was sitting at the desk, papers spread over the whole surface. He was scribbling something down. Percy was in the room with him, sitting on the floor and fiddling with a puzzle cube.

Howard may not have gotten his inventor genes entirely from his father. The Holmeses had been known to invent things from time to time. Nancy wasn’t sure when the puzzle cube was invented, or who had built the first one, but she knew why it was created. Holmes children were nearly impossible to entertain. Over the years, their parents had created various logical problems to take up their time. The puzzle cube was just one of them.

‘Where would you like these, Mr. Stark?’ Nancy asked.

‘Hm?’ Howard looked up. ‘Oh.’ He stood up and cleared a space. ‘There’ll do. Thanks, Nancy.’

‘Of course, sir.’ She sat the tray down. ‘Is there anything else?’

‘Nah.’ Howard looked over the edge of his desk. ‘What about you, Percy? You want anything?’

Percy shook his head but didn’t take his eyes off his cube.

***

Palmer had gone to fetch Col. Philips and Agent Weston. Both men had brought their second-in-command along.

‘So Stark’s finally decoded it?’ Philips asked.

‘Looks that way.’ Palmer led them up and into the study where the family was waiting. Howard had created a pin-up board behind the desk which contained all of his findings from the file MI5 had gotten from the base. It was written in the way that only someone with Holmes blood would be able to decipher it. There was a tense silence because the rest of the family had already read what Palmer was currently reading. _Oh...dear...Lord._

‘What’s all that?’ Agent Weston asked, pointing to the board.

‘First thing’s first,’ Howard said. ‘Where’s Arnim Zola?’

Agents Weston and Morris looked at each other in confusion but Agent Morris answered. ‘In Federal prison, I believe.’

‘Good,’ Howard said. ‘Leave him to rot.’ He pointed to the board behind him. ‘This is Zola’s Algorithm.’

‘What does it say?’ Col. Philips asked.

‘Well, it turns out culling this family is simply part of a larger plan.’ Howard paced in front of his notes. ‘The first part instructs to take account of every person in recorded history who took power, overthrew any empire, or otherwise changed history. From Boudicca to Cleopatra to Empress Wu. From William Wallace to Caesar to Joan of Arc to Vlad the Impaler. From Wat to Catherine the Great to Robespierre to Churchill. Even Hitler is used as an example!’ He stopped and faced them.

Palmer suspected there had been a short conversation before they’d come in on the matter. Howard was talking off of the top of his head. There was doubt in him that Howard had learned about Boudicca, Empress Wu, and Wat in an American low socio-economic school. Those were the kind of things you found out because you went looking for them.

‘What for?’ Agent Weston asked.

‘Because their objective hasn’t changed,’ Howard said. ‘They’re still going for World Domination and they don’t want anyone to stop them. So they look at all these historical figures, they look at the attributes that allowed them to rise up and do what they did, and they look for those attributes in modern day people – intelligence, aggression, ambition...and that’s just to name a few. Once they find these people, the intent is to kill them. _All_ of them.’

There was a stunned silence in the room.

Philips set his jaw. ‘Are you certain?’

‘Absolutely,’ Howard said. ‘They don’t want anyone to stop them again, so they wipe out everyone with even the smallest potential to stop them. I mean, look what they were stopped with last time.’

Philips nodded his head.

Berry, one of Palmer’s sisters, leaned back. ‘Yeah, but that covers pretty much everybody on the planet. How the hell are they gonna pull that off?’

Stark nodded. ‘The technology doesn’t exist – yet.’

‘Yet?’ Weston asked.

‘There’s a discrepancy,’ Stark said. ‘Everyone in this family except me has gotten several attempts on their lives. I haven’t had one. Why? Simple. I’m the engineer. They need me around and working on weapons so I eventually build the technology they need or at least start.’

‘The plan,’ Jayda said, ‘is most likely to use Carter as a foot in the door and Howard by association. Carter is constantly demanding equipment and, often also, weapons of Howard for her missions.’

Philips wasn’t really surprised to hear it. Carter, while a formidable woman, was a real pain in the backside once she decided something needed to be done. After all, the enquiry had found it was her idea to get Howard to drop Rogers into enemy territory after Philips’s explicit orders not to go – orders which they neglected to tell Howard had been given.

Palmer went on from there. ‘Obviously, this would have gotten worse as the years went on. As Carter got Howard more and more involved in her job, she would have demanded more and more weapons.’

Weston nodded. ‘Until the weapon they needed existed.’

Howard cracked a grin. ‘Too bad Carter can’t afford my consulting fee.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Rubik's cube was actually invented in 1974 by a bloke called, unsurprisingly Rubik. However, with how clever this family is, I'd say they'd conceive of it earlier as a way to keep their children occupied.
> 
> The attitude of the men in Agent Carter actually led me to the theory that female figures like Empress Wu and Boudicca would have been omitted from their education.
> 
> In case people don't know, Wat was a peasant man who led a peasant revolt in the middle ages.


	11. Groundwork

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to get ready.

To say Colonel Chester Philips was angry at the discovery was like saying fire was a little bit warm.

He was beyond pissed off. A quick review of Carter’s actions since the end of the war had told him exactly why HYDRA had picked her. Everybody wanted to be taken seriously but Carter was handling it with all the consideration and thoughtfulness of a charging bull in a china shop, completely disregarding the law and proper procedures when they didn’t suit her. And dragging a civilian into her work, really!

Of course, that meant that the men around her were enabling that behaviour.

So Philips dropped a line to the Director of the SSR on the matter. Then Philips could focus on what they were doing about HYDRA. The interrogations yielded the names of some higher ups. Not _the_ higher ups but enough. Now that they knew HYDRA would be quietly infiltrating society, they had to prove it. Philips wanted solid evidence that he could present to the American government.

HYDRA agents themselves would do nicely.

Still, Philips could understand why they’d picked this family. Stark had been invaluable to the war effort for the US. Speaking to the Brits, the same could be said for his cousins. It made Philips wonder how much of the allies’ victory could be attributed to a single family.

But now HYDRA had declared war on all of them – the family, the military and the intelligence community alike.

Philips knocked and stepped into the lab just as Stark hung up the phone. He had a smug self-satisfied grin on his face. ‘What have you got that cat-ate-the-canary look for?’

‘Just took all the names that the interrogators got and told my secretary to list them,’ he answered.

Philips smirked. So Stark was blocking off his small corner of the world from these jackasses. Good to see. Of course if those idiots in the American intelligence agencies had damn well listened to the British ones they could have started this ages ago. _Better late than never, I suppose,_ he thought, disgruntled.

‘Did you need to see me, Colonel?’ Stark asked.

‘Yes,’ Philips said. ‘How are those door jammers coming along?’

Stark grinned and led him through the lab. They came to a bench. The contraptions sitting on the bench were about the size of door hinges – actually, a little bit bigger. There was a switch in the centre. Stark handed one over to him. ‘It clips into wood and magnetises to metal. If the metal of the doorframe isn’t magnetic, it generates a magnetic field to make it work. The switch activates it. Tested and ready.’

Philips nodded. That was one of the reasons he’d always liked Howard. He was reliable. He make things to be as good as they could be in record time, and he’d make sure they worked properly before handing them over – something Rogers hadn’t been able to fathom.

Then again, Rogers couldn’t fathom why the army didn’t want him before the serum.

***

Two soldiers in camouflage were among the ten who were sent under the new HYDRA base.

‘I don’t get it,’ one of them said. ‘I could’ve sworn Cap took these guys out.’

‘Cap took the Red Skull out,’ the other one said in a more bored tone. ‘He was just one military commander the Nazis had. But it would’ve taken more than just him to make HYDRA work. I’m really not surprised they showed up again.’ He smirked. ‘I must say, though, I love how they decided to stupidly attack Stark’s family.’

‘Yeah, but Cap—’

‘Jesus! What have you got? A giant man-crush on Cap? He was just meant to be the prototype. Or weren’t you there when they briefed us before they injected him?’ He paused and looked him over, as if noticing his young age for the first time. ‘Oh, right. Well, there was meant to be a whole army of super-soldiers. They just couldn’t get the serum out of the old guy. They were hoping that, by playing nice, they could get him to do it. That’s why they let _him_ pick out his candidate.’

The younger soldier fidgeted. ‘That doesn’t seem very honest.’

‘We were at war, buddy.’ The older soldier clapped him on the shoulder. ‘We needed all the advantages we could get.’

***

Jarvis watched all of this unfold around him.

He’d met Col. Philips a few times. He was a hard-nosed, no-nonsense career soldier. During the war, he had been Miss Carter’s and Captain Rogers’ commanding officer. It had surprised Jarvis that he had come to Mr. Stark’s call so quickly. As far as he knew, the colonel had considered Mr. Stark a member of support staff and an artillery salesman.

Still, he was here and he’d snuck his men in with him.

Jarvis was further surprised with the kind of remarks he was making in relation to Captain Rogers. It seemed as though he hadn’t bore the Captain very much affection at all. In fact, it seemed like he was angry at Captain Rogers for something he had no control over.

Jarvis hadn’t actually personally met the Captain but he had heard all the stories. He was a moralistic man who had been, at first, forced onto the bond sales circuit despite the advantage he held for their allies on the battlefield. Mr. Stark had once spoken of him with pride. Now he spoke of him with indifference.

Jarvis wondered at the change.

***

Howard leaned over the monitor, the blue glow indicative of the power source.

‘Is it working?’ Palmer asked.

Howard nodded. ‘The Tesseract is powering the computer far better than the electric grid ever could. Damn, I need to reverse engineer this thing!’

‘Maybe they’ll let you after we’re done here,’ Palmer said. ‘You did help catch HYDRA again, after all.’

‘Hm.’

‘What do the readings say?’ Berry asked.

‘HYDRA are still staying right where they are.’ Howard chuckled and shook his head. ‘Amazing. Their first base gets found and they don’t seem to be nervous about it happening again.’

Palmer shook his head. ‘Well, judging by the guys MI5 caught, if they represent the whole lot, these guys ought to have the hubris for it.’

‘What do you mean?’ Howard asked, not looking up.

‘I mean, this lot, have spent most of their time gloating. Despite the fact that they’ve been captured, they’re sure of themselves to the point of being overconfident. They have a superiority complex coupled with extreme arrogance. They’re certain they’re going to win – and I can see why. America is showing all of the signs of becoming the next superpower, and that’s where their strongest foothold is.’

A fair point. ‘So they think they’ve got all of the advantage,’ Howard said.

‘Precisely,’ Palmer said. ‘However, that kind of hubris has existed in others throughout history as well – most recently: Hitler.’

Howard snorted in amusement.

He wasn’t the only one either.

***

It was pitch dark.

Six men in camouflage moved out of their cars and headed for the gates of the Holmes Estate. They were forced to ricochet back and dive for cover, though, when lights flicked on, so bright the men found themselves battling spots in their vision. They quickly gathered behind some large bushes on the roadside.

‘How could they have seen us?’

‘That’s their reputation, nincompoop! They’re supposed to see everything that happens in their line of vision. They can’t have seen us too well, though. We’re just going to have to sneak around the back.’

The men moved off again, heading for the back of the mansion.

***

At the back of the mansion, five dogs slept.

At the same time, their ears suddenly perked up. They lifted their heads and looked. Then they rose slowly. They bared their teeth and they all began to growl. Their hackles rose and their tails went down between their legs. The dogs slowly crept forward, heading for the smell of trespassers.


	12. Attack on Holmes Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HYDRA attacks.

Jim was woken up by the dogs barking.

He was out of bed in an instant, barely taking a moment to shove his feet into his slippers and swing on his robe. He ran downstairs, grabbing his shotgun as he went. Several other servants had also risen to the dogs. They all rushed down and out the back door after Jim. He came out to the back porch and flicked on the light just as they heard a gunshot and a yelp.

The back yard was illuminated.

Four men in dark clothes could be seen trying to fight off the Holmes family’s dogs. Two men were on the ground, not moving. Jim also noted one of the dogs was lying on the ground as well. One of the upright men had a revolver in his hand. Jim snapped his gun up.

‘DROP THE WEAPONS!’

Apparently, they hadn’t been the only ones to come running when the dogs started barking. And, by God, could that Colonel Philips yell. It was more like a bellow actually. But Jim wasn’t going to call the dogs off yet, because it was clear these goons (HYDRA, no doubt) weren’t going to do what they’d been told. In fact one of them pulled his arm back like he was about to pitch something through a window above Jim.

The smallest of the dogs jumped as his arm, though, teeth wrapping around whatever he was about to throw. Both the dog and the device went flying. What happened next had Jim just praying that none of the children were watching. They didn’t need to see that.

_KA-BOOM!_

***

First and foremost, the vet had been called for the rest of the dogs.

The two remaining HYDRA goons (the ones who hadn’t copped a fatal bullet when Philips ordered his men to open fire) were kept under armed guard. What was left of the bomb was placed on Howard’s work bench. He spent a few minutes inspecting it with Weston on one side and Philips on the other.

‘Very crudely made,’ he eventually said. ‘It would have done the job though. This place would be a charred-out shell by now if they’d gotten it through a window.’

‘So it would have ignited everything?’ Philips asked.

‘No trouble.’ Howard lifted one of the burnt-out components and gesticulated with it. ‘And it would have done it fast. We’d have all been trapped or dead before we knew what’d happened. But, like Palmer said, they overestimated themselves. From the looks of things, they wanted to get into the house to set it off. They wouldn’t have had time to get out again.’

Weston nodded. ‘When we interrogated them, they seemed pretty sure they could escape unharmed.’

Howard made a “there you go” gesture. ‘They wouldn’t have. This is designed to work too quickly. Either they were ignorant to that, or it was an accidental design.’

‘You can’t tell which?’ Weston asked.

‘Not if I don’t see the blueprints.’ Howard lifted the bomb piece. ‘Or this thing whole.’

‘Either way, they’re stepping up their game,’ Philips said. ‘We’re gonna have to go get them as soon as we can.’ He frowned. ‘Might be an idea to move the kids into protective custody too.’

Howard looked over at Palmer.

Palmer nodded. ‘We’ll send the servants with them.’

Weston sighed. ‘This time you’re going to come running in with us, aren’t you?’

Palmer gave him a close-mouthed grin.

***

The six children went with the household servants, climbing into a truck with the servants they’d known their whole lives. Knowing they were more use to their children than to their married-into family, Sam, Greg, Caleb, Tom, Lucy, and Kate went as well. Howard went down into his makeshift lab and made the final preparations.

Philips and his men worked with MI5, cultivating the plan of attack.

Berry and Jayda sat on the bugs with the Intel agents of MI5.

They found out a crucial bit of information.

‘They’re expecting us to attack,’ Berry said. ‘But they’re expecting us to attack during the night.’

‘It’s typically more strategic to attack during the night,’ Morris pointed out.

‘Right.’ Palmer said. ‘But not in this case.’

‘How do you propose to sneak up on them in broad daylight then?’ Philips asked. He wasn’t mocking the idea. It was clear to him that if HYDRA was expecting a night-time attack, then it was better to attack in the daytime. It was a serious question. He didn’t doubt they had an idea.

‘The same way they always sneak up on them,’ Howard said. The next few hours had soldiers and agents alike sat in the chairs of the make-up room. The men had, of course, been nervous about it but every single one of them was impressed with the end result.

‘Amazing,’ Philips mused. ‘But I guess those clowns in films do the same thing.’

‘Yup,’ Howard said.

***

Jarvis was surprised when Mr. Stark turned in early as opposed to staying up all night. Even though Ana had gone with the other servants, he himself had remained in the manor with three of the official servants. It was bad form to leave an aristocratic household without any servants to maintain it. Even in the instance of an evacuation, some had to stay – usually the heads of staff.

‘It’s going to be a daytime raid,’ Jim had told him when he asked.

‘Daytime?’ Jarvis asked. ‘But won’t that make it easy to spot them coming?’

Pam chuckled. ‘The thing is that HYDRA are expecting them to come in the night-time. Even if they see them coming, there’ll be no time to compensate for the plan.’

Jarvis sighed. ‘I still don’t understand...’

‘Why Carter wasn’t called.’ Jim finished his sentence with an air of boredom. ‘Okay, Jarvis. You’ve seen what your own employer is capable of, but you’re still trapped in the Carter Headspace. The Holmeses have heard her talk. They have heard her speech patterns and they have heard that she has The Voice. I’d take anything she says with a grain of salt, were I you.’

‘The Voice?’ Jarvis was utterly confused. ‘What is The Voice?’

Jim chuckled. ‘You can ask one of the Holmeses later. They describe it far better than I ever could.’

Jarvis pondered that.

***

It had been a while.

Weston remembered Leland Holmes from when he’d been a police officer, right at the beginning of his career in law enforcement. The man had, at first, appeared to be completely mad. He’d often wondered why the detective inspector had put up with such a brash and disrespectful man usurping his cases.

Then he found out _who_ Leland Holmes was.

Leland Holmes was a private investigator and a consulting detective, with a genius that was invaluable in catching criminals. It was the same way his father before him had lived. When Weston had met the old Lestrade, who’d taken a liking to him, he’d been regaled of the tales of irritation and awe at the exploits of one Sherlock William Scott Holmes.

At least Leland had never faked his own death for two years, conceived an illegitimate son in the time he’d been pretending to be dead, and then behaved as if they were overreacting when they found out he had a five year old that seemed to pop out of nowhere.

It was things like that which desensitised you to the...quirks of the entire family.

During the war, they had noticed such quirks in the American inventor and innovator, Howard Stark. Due to the fact that he was American and did not bear the Holmes name, no one had ever considered he could be one of them. However, it was hardly surprising to find out that he was. The Holmeses were notorious for anyone who’d worked in law enforcement in the London area.

The criminals would like to know more, but the information was forcibly concealed from them – and had been for over half a century.

Except these ones.

Of course what did they expect when they began attacking different branches of the same family famous for their unconventional genius and unpredictable natures. It was almost like signing your own death warrant to attack them in such a manner. The penalty for murder, after all, was death. And murder had been committed here, so the perpetrators would be executed.

They wanted to get away with it, they should never have picked the Holmeses as their first targets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> R.I.P. 2 little doggies. We shall miss you Pitts and Shorty. :_(
> 
> The Voice will be explained in 2 chapters.
> 
> At the end, Weston is just presuming that the Holmeses were the first family attacked.


	13. A Better Mouse Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time the charge is led by the Holmeses.

Jeremy Stratton had suffered extensively from inner ear infections as a lad, particularly in his left ear. A car accident in his youth had also left him with a considerably weakened right knee. Nobody could tell these things about him just by looking though. He had trained the weaknesses out of his body before he even came to HYDRA’s notice, never mind into their ranks.

Now he stood guarding the main generator.

Those arrogant know-it-alls had somehow found their first base. They wouldn’t find this one though. What were the odds of them stumbling across two HYDRA bases at the same time? Not very high at all. They’d get their arses handed to them at the end of the day.

A sound got his attention and Jeremy turned.

He barely had time to recognise one of the Holmes men in front of him before the smarmy bastard kicked him in the right knee and then punched him in the left ear.

Jeremy was knocked out cold.

***

Howard crouched down by the first generator.

There were three other generators. Acer and Harper were at one. A couple of MI5 technicians were at the third generator and two soldiers were at the fourth one. All of the power would go out at once. There was a Holmes with all of them to do exactly as Palmer had done: quickly subdue the HYDRA agents standing guard over the generators.

That way, they could all cut the wires at the same time.

The generators were, Howard had discovered after checking the building’s power output on one of his monitors in the manor, their only source of power. They had clearly wanted to stay off of the grid. No doubt they hoped it would keep them from being tracked. As a result, if the generators were taken out, then everything was.

They had no power.

It was laughable, in a way. All that ambition, all that corruption and cock-sure confidence. And they were going to be pinned down by their own paranoia. This would be a funny story to retell. And they weren’t even finished! Howard and Palmer slipped inside the base.

They knew Acer and Harper would be doing the exact same thing.

***

Berry waited until they were cutting the wire.

She then slipped away without being noticed – easy seeing as she’d stood back once the guard was knocked out. She walked over to the door and slipped inside before anyone in the base noticed what had gone wrong. She’d, of course, paused at the door to make sure no one was on the other side.

At the final generator, she knew Jayda was doing the same.

***

The power went entirely dead.

Jonathan Marshall, head of the operation, sent men out to check the generators and the men guarding them. It might have been the infernal British weather, or perhaps there was just something about the power grid on this end of town. It was unlikely to be a serious problem.

Ten minutes passed and nothing happened.

‘Sir.’ One of his men stepped into his office. ‘You might want to see this.’

Marshall walked out to see his men all looking out the windows. What were they all looking at? His man led him over to an upraised section of window so he could see out without the bother of getting past all his men. Marshall looked outside to see what had their attention.

Well, that wasn’t fair!

The building was lined with soldiers, all pointing their guns.

A voice was projected towards their base. ‘We have you surrounded. Come out with your hands up.’

‘Do they?’ Marshall asked.

‘Yes,’ his man said. ‘The men that were sent out to check the generators, and the guards outside, have all been captured. May I suggest you evacuate the premises?’

A good idea.

Marshall strode towards the nearest trap door that gave him a clean escape route. The carpet was tugged aside for him and one of the men grabbed the handle and pulled. But something was wrong. The door, which had no locks on it, did not budge. Even after a second man, and then a third grabbed the handle and pulled, it did not move a millimetre.

‘What the hell?’ Marshall demanded.

‘Shit!’ his man hissed. ‘I guess they didn’t fall for the same trick twice.’

***

Philips had been a soldier long enough to say “they started it” without a trace of petulance.

After all, HYDRA fired the first shot. They were declaring non-compliance. Not that he’d expected anything else. ‘Aim for their guns!’ Philips barked. ‘Any places where they can shoot from and shoot!’

Two men had died in the initial burst. Five had been injured.

‘Keep the rounds coming!’ Philips bellowed.

He had a very good feeling that HYDRA would run out of ammo before his men and MI5 did.

Howard and his cousins were still inside the perimeter.

***

Several soldiers were amused, at the back of the building, to see crates of ammo dumped out the back second-story window. They were far enough back that if anything did explode they would not be hit. The HYDRA goons on the other hand...

Yes, it was amusing.

***

Several men rushed into the armoury.

They were stopped short to find six people in particular inside. The room was empty of all weaponry – bullets, grenades, bombs, and even the spare firearms. There was just six Holmeses (five Holmeses and a Stark) standing in a large empty room. All six had wide grins on their faces.

The guns were entirely out of ammo, but they’d still make good weapons.

The HYDRA soldiers charged.

***

Palmer took in the two guys charging him.

_Weakened ribs, left side. Suffered from asthma as a child. Weakness in the jaw._

_Weak left shoulder. Blind in left eye. Most likely both injuries suffered from the same incident._

Palmer struck the first one. Knee up into the left side of the ribs, punch in the jaw. Kick in the stomach. Dodge the rifle swing from the other guy.

_Broken ribs – 2. Difficulty breathing, but no danger of suffocation. Fractured jaw. Physical recovery: 8 months._

Palmer turned on the other one. He ducked to the man’s left, grabbed his left arm and pulled. The man hollered as he was yanked off of his feet and thrown into the nearby cabinet. He dropped down.

_Strained shoulder. Inflammation caused. Concussion. Physical recovery: 2 weeks._

***

Howard was amused to see three men charge at him, empty guns raised like they were batons. Howard ducked, dodging two and burying his fist deep into the gut of the third man. People remembered that he was a businessman, but they always seemed to forget (except when it suited them) that he was also an engineer. Constructing machines took quite a bit of strength.

The grunt made a choked noise.

Howard clocked him in the nose.

He turned and dodged yet another man swinging a rifle at him. He ignored the sting of the barrel scratching his head and grabbed the rifle that the second guy swung at him. With hardly any effort, mostly from catching the grunt by surprise, he knocked him out with it. The last guy came at him again and Howard dodged again, but he caught the back of the guy’s collar.

Last thing that guy would have seen before he was knocked out was the wall rushing to meet him.

***

Harper ducked under the rifles of the first two men and focused on the one with the handgun.

_Weakness in the right ankle. Prone to drink. Recently consumed enough alcohol to throw him slightly off-balance. Two others have consumed more alcohol. Easy._

She kicked him in the ankle. He yelped and jumped, dropping his gun. Harper punched him in the face. He dropped like a stone. His two buddies came charging at her again. Harper ducked and twisted. She grabbed their collars and slammed their faces together.

They both dropped to the ground.

_When they wake up in a few hours, they’re gonna have real ugly headaches._

***

Berry took in the two men charging her. She hopped to the side, dodging the first one as she took in the second. _Leg broken a few years ago. Weakness in the femur. Prone to blood noses in childhood. Sinuses good for targeting._

She ducked down and swept her legs around, knocking him of his feet. As he went down and she sprung up, she clocked him in the bridge of the nose. He was out cold. She spun around away from the other guy, who was coming at her again. _Nose broken. Physical recovery: slightly delayed._

That done, she noted the weaknesses in the second man.

_Currently on sedatives, weakness in the head._

She simply swung a punch into his face.

He dropped like a stone.

***

Jarvis watched in amazement.

A group of unconscious men were dragged out along with the HYDRA agents who had been forced to surrender. Then Mr. Stark and his cousins followed the MI5 agents and the US soldiers who took up the rear, laughing and talking amongst themselves. As he stared at his employer, Jarvis realised something that had escaped his notice before.

Mr. Stark had held his own against armed soldiers.

All he had to show for it was a cut, barely a quarter of an inch long, across his forehead. There was some blood on the knuckles of his right hand, where he’d punched someone. But he had taken on people with weapons, who had wished him dead, and he had come out on top.

He was not stabbed, nor choked, nor knocked out. He was in a jovial mood so he had clearly come out on top of that fight. As he heard the conversation, Jarvis became aware of the fact that three people had attacked Mr. Stark at once at one point.

And he had beaten them all.

Miss Carter generally took on people, one on one when she was unarmed. And, often, also when she was armed. She had been impaled. One suspect had nearly throttled her to death. She had been nearly killed going head to head with a single person. And yet, Mr. Stark took on three at once (and that was just one instance) and he walked out with no more than a minor cut.

Perhaps Jarvis _had_ been blinded by Miss Carter’s unconventional personality.

Yes, she was a credit to her profession but Jarvis had forgotten that Mr. Stark was no shrinking violet either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought it would be boring and/or repetitive if I did more Holmesian fighting.
> 
> As to Jarvis's POV, some HYDRA agents did commit suicide but he doesn't know that.


	14. The End of HYDRA?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whole affair is drawn to a close.

The names of all the leaders of HYDRA were secured.

It was only a matter of finding them. A lot of them were easy to pin down and arrest. They had started manoeuvring themselves into positions of power, especially in the American economy. In fact, one of them was the chairman of the senate hearing last year – the very same guy who’d tried to get Howard convicted of treason and executed. (Seemed he wasn’t as untargeted as he’d thought.)

The file on the Holmes family murders was finally closed.

_Victims in total: 8._

_Last victim: Alexander Goddard (beaten to death) on Friday October 24th, 1947. Covered as a drunken accident._

_Killing spree upon the Holmes family has officially ended on January the 6th, 1948._

***

‘The Voice?’ Palmer chuckled.

‘Mr. Healey said you could explain it better than he could,’ Jarvis said.

‘Oh, I can.’ Palmer grinned. ‘The Voice is just that: it’s a type of voice. The Voice is something only a few people have. It’s passionate and charismatic. When you hear it, it doesn’t matter what is being said, it sounds like the speaker is unquestionably and unequivocally right in their statements. Even if what they’re saying is completely wrong, the Voice makes them _sound_ right.’

‘Sound right?’

‘It’s even worse if the speaker isn’t aware that they have the Voice.’ Palmer smiled almost bitterly. ‘Every time they talk about something they’re passionate about, they sound like they’re right, because they don’t know they’re doing it. Case in point: Adolf Hitler.’

Jarvis drew back.

‘Hitler.’ Palmer nodded. ‘Your wife is Jewish, correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘How else could a single man have gotten an entire nation – several nations in fact – to go along with cultural suppression and genocide on such a scale not seen before in human history? This is a man who made people agree with the idea of systematic exploitation and murder. And they never realised they were part of one of the most evil regimes in history until they were shown the images at the end of the war; until they were shown things like lampshades made out of human skin.’

Jarvis was stunned speechless. Would that have happened to Ana if Mr. Stark hadn’t stepped in when he did?

‘On the other hand, we have Mr. Churchill,’ Palmer said.

Jarvis shook his head. ‘Those are two very different examples.’

‘But they both had that Voice,’ Palmer said. ‘You certainly would have heard Mr. Churchill speaking. Berry actually worked in Downing Street during the war. Unlike the reports of Hitler during the war, Churchill did not constantly talk like that. He picked his moments to incite hope, courage, and determination in the British people – even when they were getting bombed.’

‘You’re saying Mr. Churchill knew he was in possession of this Voice, but Hitler wasn’t aware?’ Jarvis asked.

‘Precisely,’ Palmer said. ‘And that’s the problem with people who don’t know they have the Voice. They use it every time they have an opinion. The problem isn’t that they have opinions, it’s that their tone of voice convinces _everyone_ around them to agree with them. Due to this, they develop the idea that they’re never wrong. And any dissent is utterly dismissed and sometimes treated with outright rudeness.’

Jarvis’s mind was taken back to an incident when Miss Carter had been injured on one of her missions. Jarvis had expressed concern with the way she ran about by herself without backup, and suggested that there were people willing to help her. She had (rather rudely, now that he thought about it) responded with a sarcastic remark about not knowing how she survived up until now.

‘How, precisely, do you tell somebody that they’re at that stage?’ Jarvis asked.

‘Often, you can’t,’ Palmer said. ‘They’re confident and they don’t listen to dissenting opinions. The most you can do is nudge them in that direction every time they make one of those speeches they’re so known for by picking apart their arguments.’ He grinned. ‘The next time Miss Carter makes a passionate speech of any kind, you should just ignore her tone. Pay attention to her words. Ask yourself this: is she speaking the truth or is she merely saying what sounds good.’

Jarvis was then left with his thoughts.

***

‘Stark?’

Howard turned as Col. Philips walked into his lab. ‘Colonel.’

‘I’m heading back stateside,’ Philips said.

Howard gave a wry smile. ‘Got a few people to yell at?’

‘More than just a few.’ Philips shook his head. ‘Your cousins told me that Carter’s been using you like a piggy bank.’ He cocked an eyebrow in question.

‘Is that how they put it?’ Howard shook his head. ‘So, out of curiosity, which cousins?’

‘The kids.’ Philips huffed. ‘Good God.’ He rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment. ‘I’ll be honest with you, Howard. I wouldn’t give that woman too much sway. From the looks of it, she already has too much in the SSR. The amount of time I had to yell at her for breaking regulations. You should be aware that when she decides she wants something she’ll come up with some noble sounding-reason for it and then throw any rulebook to the wind just to get what she wants.’

Howard nodded. ‘Yeah, I’ve seen that.’

Philips gave a light wince. ‘I take it you won’t be indulging her any then.’

‘Not anymore, no.’ Howard looked at him. It seemed a good opportunity to ask. ‘There is one thing, though.’

‘Yeah?’

‘What was the plan for Rogers after the war?’

Philips chuckled. ‘Personally, I wanted to have him charged for all the insubordination. Wasn’t good for morale during the war though. Can’t say what the other generals wanted to do but Rogers was not someone you wanted out by himself – not with those powers anyway.’ Philips suddenly looked curious. ‘So what was the draw for you?’

‘Seriously?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, first I was curious to see if it could be done. Then, I wanted to see just what he was capable of.’ Howard frowned, the memory of that particular projection sitting in his mind. ‘But, recently, I found out some things about him that’ve made me wish anyone but Erskine picked the subject.’

Philips gave him a knowing smirk. ‘Found out how short of time they knew each other, huh?’

‘Sadly, yes,’ Howard said.

Philips nodded. ‘Man was a geneticist, not a shrink. See you in the states, Stark.’

‘Colonel.’ Howard acknowledged.

The Colonel walked out.

***

‘We’re safe now?’ Tania had asked when she saw her mother again for the first time.

Berry had smiled and answered. ‘We’re safe.’

The room was lit entirely with sunlight now as the family sat in the main parlour before Howard and the Jarvises were set to return to America. The Holmeses were planning an American holiday in a few weeks, mostly because Palmer, Jayda, and Berry wanted to have a go at Carter. The rest of them wouldn’t mind a go at her, but they weren’t fussed either way.

‘So, you go home, ring in the new year by cleaning out your company, and avoiding contact with Carter,’ Jayda remarked. ‘What’s next after that?’

‘I gotta get ready for a little field trip,’ Howard said.

‘Ah.’ Palmer nodded. ‘That POW you were talking about. You want help?’

‘Wouldn’t say no.’

‘So who is he?’ Harper asked. ‘This POW?’

‘Sergeant James Barnes,’ Howard said. ‘He was in the 107th and then was transferred to the Howling Commandoes.’

‘Hold on,’ Greg said. ‘It might be just me, but weren't those guys all POWs at one point? That’s what I heard.’

‘Yeah.’ And, only now that he was thinking about it, Howard was seeing something very wrong with what had happened. ‘They were all part of the 107th first. Rogers rescued them from a HYDRA base and then decided he wanted those men in particular as the Howlies.’

Acer clicked his tongue. ‘Haw.’

James turned to him. ‘And for those of us who don’t know about military protocols?’

‘POWs have the right to a discharge on the grounds of trauma,’ Palmer said. ‘Add in experimentation, as HYDRA and Nazis were both wont to do, and those men should have been sent home. They weren’t because Rogers decided that he wanted them in particular.’

Howard nodded. ‘The brass didn’t want to damage morale. Giving Captain America any disciplinary measures or telling him no would have been seen as such. They probably didn’t like the idea, but they did it.’

Ruth scoffed. ‘Rogers was a dick.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, the Voice is just an extremely charismatic voice.
> 
> I'm not dead sure about the discharge thing - I couldn't find anything - but it sounds logical and more than a few commenters remarked on it in another story so I feel reasonably confident with it.
> 
> Next chapter: Peg meets Palmer, Berry, and Jayda.


	15. Family is Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peg meets the Holmeses. They let her know exactly what they think of her.

Jarvis was certain that this was a terrible idea.

Miss Carter hadn’t been happy to get yelled at, along with the rest of the SSR (and the CIA and the FBI) by the American military. And she hadn’t been expecting to receive disciplinary measures (she refused to say what they were) from the top of command in the SSR.

And she had not been happy to find out that Mr. Stark was being lauded and praised as a hero for rediscovering HYDRA. In fact, she was vehemently denying it as Jarvis drove her to the mansion. ‘HYDRA no longer exists. Steve Rogers did not give his life in vain!’

‘I saw them with my own eyes, Miss Carter,’ Jarvis said.

‘You saw somebody,’ she said in _that_ tone. ‘But it cannot have been HYDRA.’

Miss Holmes was right. She was refusing to listen because she didn’t want Mr. Rogers to have died in vain. And now she refused to listen when he recommended against this action – with the exact same tone of voice. It looked like the entire family had been right about that: she did have The Voice and she was actually unaware of it. That made her unintentionally dangerous, and Jarvis was finding himself questioning everything he’d believed of her.

‘I want to meet these people,’ she had stated, and would hear no argument.

So, Jarvis, against his better judgement, drove her to the Long Island mansion where Mr. Stark was hosting his family.

It was no surprise to see Palmer Holmes waiting when they pulled up, leaning on the doorframe. His super-perceptive eyes took in Miss Carter as she got out of the car, looking at him critically, and then approached. Jarvis cleared his throat as he followed. ‘Miss Carter, Mr. Palmer Holmes.’

‘Mr. Holmes,’ she said.

‘Miss Carter.’ There was a touch of amusement in his voice. ‘So you’re the SOE girl then?’

Immediately, Miss Carter’s back went up. Knowing what he knew of the family now, Jarvis was sure that was Mr. Holmes’s intention. She walked right into it. ‘I would hardly be considered a girl, Mr. Holmes.’

Mr. Holmes raised his eyebrows. ‘And I would hardly consider Howard a...what was it you called him? Oh, yes. A megalomaniac.’ He chuckled and shook his head. ‘As you seem confused as to the definition of the word, I’ll take the liberty to educate you.’

Miss Carter scoffed. ‘I hardly need further education. You, on the other hand...’

He cut her off. ‘A megalomaniac can be defined in three characteristics.’ He caught the fist she swung at his face and kept a hold on it, making direct eye contact. ‘The first: a mental state characterised by delusions of grandeur. Name one time Howard has displayed any delusions of grandeur.’

Miss Carter was silent for a moment, then she went to open her mouth.

‘And, no, his bragging about his intelligence does not count because he really is that clever. That’s not a delusion. Neither is HYDRA, despite the comforting lies I don’t doubt you’re telling yourself. Which brings us to point two: megalomania is a lust or a craving for power. Howard founded Stark Industries because he wanted to get out of the gutter of society. If you’d ever lived like that, you’d understand why. Now that’s he’s out, he’s quite content. He neither wants nor seeks further power.’ He smirked. ‘I can’t say the same for you, though.’

Miss Carter looked indignant and opened her mouth, no doubt to protest.

Mr. Holmes did not let her speak. ‘Definition three: megalomania is a delusional or a highly exaggerated concept of one’s own importance. Howard suffers no such plight. He does not consider himself above the law and he does not consider the desires of the average Joe to be lesser than his own.’ His eyes narrowed as he made an opinion known. ‘And he certainly won’t go after his desires at the expense of someone else.’ He paused. ‘Perhaps you haven’t done that yet, but you are heading in that direction.’ That, said, he pushed Miss Carter’s arm away. ‘This is your roadblock.’

That said, he stepped into the house and left.

***

Palmer had brushed through the room with a, ‘She’s coming in.’

Of course, she was. Walking away would be giving in. Sure enough, Jarvis led her in a moment later. The woman, with her bright red lipstick, was just about quaking. Palmer had obviously hit a little too close to home, and she didn’t like it. She’d reacted with anger. That told the sisters that they’d been absolutely correct in their previous deductions of Margaret “Peggy” Carter.

Of course, when she came in, Carter started. ‘You’re joking.’

‘And what, may I ask, is wrong with tennis?’ Berry swung her racket and hit the ball back across the room the Jayda.

‘Nothing but you’re playing it indoors,’ Carter said with an air of disapproval – as if her opinion should matter to them.

Jayda smirked. ‘Excellent observation.’ She swung her racket and hit the tennis ball back across the room.

Jarvis cleared his throat. ‘Mrs. Berry Smith and Miss Jayda Holmes. Mr. Holmes’s younger sisters.’

Carter huffed. ‘Do they all have strange names?’

‘Yes,’ both sisters said in unison.

Carter drew back and then shook her head. ‘Where is Howard?’

‘What’s it to you?’ Jayda responded.

‘Oh, for Heaven’s sake!’ Carter rolled her eyes. ‘Is he really hiding?’

‘I wouldn’t call it hiding,’ Jayda said. ‘We’re just not telling you where he is. He is not at your beck and call so stop acting like he is.’

Carter’s back went up. ‘For your information, I need him to help me with a case for national security.’

‘He’s a civilian.’ Berry missed the ball but she smirked at Carter. ‘And aren’t you confined to the office?’

‘Who told you that?’ Carter snapped.

‘Unimportant.’ Berry picked up a new tennis ball. ‘What is important is your little freeloading habit.’

‘Freeloading?’ Carter demanded indignantly.

‘That’s the closest appropriate phrase, I believe,’ Jayda said, ‘for someone who demands a service yet pays out no compensation for the time and effort.’

Carter huffed dismissively. ‘So Howard’s demanding money now?’ She gave a derisive sound. ‘I suppose I should expect it from him! He’ll take any chance to line his pockets.’

Both sisters froze for such a short moment Carter didn’t notice.

Jarvis did. He stepped aside.

Berry lined the tennis ball against her racket as Carter turned to demand what Jarvis was doing. She threw it into the air and then struck the ball with the racket. Jayda did not move. The tennis ball sailed across the room, bounced off of the wall and back across the room.

Peggy Carter didn’t see the tennis ball coming, but she sure as hell felt it impact with the side of her face. It hit her with just enough force to knock her over and send her kissing the floor. As Carter tried to work out what happened, Berry walked over and picked up the ball. She then glared down at her until the other woman managed to recover her senses and glared at her.

‘Another remark like that, peon, and it’ll be a cricket ball.’ Berry’s eyes narrowed. ‘You will soon find that this family does not tolerate insults to our own.’ She turned on her heel and marched for the door.

‘You must be the most ungracious guest I have ever seen,’ Jayda said. ‘If you cannot be civil, you know where the door is.’ She followed her sister out.

***

Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan was sitting in Howard Stark’s backyard.

He’d come to deliver a contract for the Colonel. While Howard was reading through it, they were sitting out on the patio. But Dum Dum was trying to work something out. He was watching a few unfamiliar adults in the pool, but there were all so six children, four of which were playing some variation of water polo. The two younger ones, a pre-schooler and a toddler were at the shallow end of the pool, each with an adult who seemed to be teaching them to swim or, in the toddler’s case, doggy-paddle.

‘They’re my cousins,’ Howard said.

‘Cousins?’ Dum Dum asked.

‘My mother was one of three kids,’ Howard said. ‘And her brother was about a decade older than her.’

Oh. That made sense. The kids must have been the grandchildren of Howard’s uncle.

Okay, Dum Dum was no longer confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peg's discipline:
> 
> 1) Being forced to stay in the office and;
> 
> 2) retraining on why civilians are not involved in missions.


End file.
